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aXV 







SBUBC, PA 



THE 



SOLDIEKS' NATIONAL CEMETERY 



AT 



GETTYSBURG. 



WITH THE TEOCEKDINGS AT ITS CONSECRATION; AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE 
OE THE MONUMENT, AND AT ITS DEUICATION. 



JOHN RUSSELL BARTLETT, 

Secretary of the Board of Cornmissioners. 



(PJioviQEjres : 

(printed ly the (Providence (Press -Company for the gcard of Qommissioners of the 

Soldiers' J^aiional Cemetery. 

1^74. 



e: 



,'Q-i.'^ 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Origin and History of tlie Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, - - - - 1 

Letter of Hon. Davtd Wills to Governok Cdrtin suggesting the purchase of ground for a 

Cemeter}' on the Battle Field at Gettysburg, - - - - - ■ - 1 

Governor Curtin's Letter in reply, ..------4 

Letter from the Hon. Edward Everett accepting the invitation to deliver tlie Oration at tlic 

Consecration of the Cemeter\', ..------ 5 

Charter of the Soldiers' National Cemetery from the State of Pennsylvania, - - - 6 

Commissioners of the States and the Board of Managers, ----- 10 

List of Contributions from the several States, - - - - - - -11 

Interments in the Cemetery, --------- 12 

List of Regiments in the different Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the Battle of Gettysburg, 1.3 
Description of the Monument to Major-General John F. Reynolds," - - - - 17 

Transfer of the Soldiers' National Cemetery to the United States, - - - - 17 

Description of the Gettysburg Monument, ---.-.-19 

Exercises at the Consecration of the National Cemetery, ----- 21 

Letter from Major-Genekal Meade, --.- = ---24 

Letter from Major-General Winfield Scott, ..--.- 24 

Letter from Admiral Charles Stewart, ...---- 25 

Letter from the Hon. S. P. Chase, ----- --25 

Remarks bj' the Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State,- - - - - 25 

Address by the Hon. Edward Everett at the Consecration, - . - - 27 

Hymn composed bj- B. B. French, Esq., sung at the Consecration, - - - - 5S 

Dedicatory Address bj' President Lincoln, at the Consecration, - - - - 59 

Dirge hy James G. Percival, sung at the Consecration, - - - - - (iO 



w . 



L'OyTENTS. 



Exercises at the Laying of the Corner-stone of the Monument in the Cemetcrv, 
Letter from Andhkw .Toiixson, President of the United States, - - - 

The Gettysburg Monumental Ode, ------- 

Oration of Ma jor-General O. O. HowAKD, - . - - - 

Poem by Charles G. IIalpine (Miles O'Reilly), - - - - . 

llyniu to the Memory of our Falli'u Heroes at the Battle of Gettysburg, 

Remarks of Governor CuRTiN, of Pennsylvania, - . - - . 

Exercises at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, - 

Address by Major-Gexeral Meade at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, - 

Oration of Governor 0. P. Morton at the Dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, 

Dedication Ode bv Bayard Taylor, ------- 



(;i 

01 
65 
66 
75 

80 
81 
H3 
85 
88 
103 



PLATES. 



V View of the Soldiers' Monument at Gettysburg, 
J Portrait oe Major-General John E. Reynolds, 
JPoRTRAiT ov Major-General George G. Meade, 
■'Plan oe the Soldiers' National Cemetery at GETTYsnuito, 
U'lan of the Battle Field oe Geitvsuurg, 



{to face title page) . 



17 

82 
12 
50 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY 



OF THE 



^ohlitrs' llational (I[i)mctcrij at dctlpburg. 




''HE memorable battle of Gettysburg took place on the first, second and tlikd 
J ) days of July, 1863, and on the twenty-first of the same month, David Wills, 
Esq., a citizen of Gettysbiu'g, addressed the folloAving letter to His Excellency 
A. G. Curtin, Governor of the State of Pennsylvania : — 

Gettysburg, July 24</i, 1863. 
To His Excellenct A. G. Curtin, Governor. 

Dear Sir, — Mr. Se3-moiir is here on behalf of his brother, the Governor of New York, to look 
after the wounded, etc., on the battle field, and I have suggested to him, and also the Rev. Mr. Cross, 
of Baltimore, and others, the propriety and aetual necessity of the purchase of a common burial ground 
for the dead, now onlj- partiall}- buried over miles of country around Gett3-sburg. 

There is one spot very desirable for this purpose. It is the elevated piece of ground on the 
Baltimore turnpike, opposite the Cemetery. It is the place where our army had about forty pieces of 
artillery in action all Thursda3' and Friday, and for their protection had thrown up a large number of 
earthworks for the artillerists. It is the point on which the desperate attack was made by the Lousi- 
aua Brigades on Thursday- evening, when they succeeded in reaching the guns, taking possession of 
them, and were finallv driven back b}' the Infantry, assisted with the artillerj- men, with their hand- 
spikes and rammers. It was the key to the whole line of our defences, the apex of the triangular line 
of battle. It is the spot above all others for the honorable iiirial of the dead who have fallen on these 
fields. There are two lots of ground, together making eight acres, about three and a half acres 
belonging to Mr. Raffensperger, and four and a half to Mr. Menchy, and I called on them for the 
purpose of ascertaining whether it could be bought. They would not sell it for any other purpose, 
but offer to sell it for the purpose named for $200 per acre each. This is not much out of the way, 
and I think it should be secured at once and the project started. I refer the matter to you for your 
careful considei'ation and decision. 



2 ■ OliiaiX AND HISTORY OF THE 

In examining the Act of 2(5111 Febniury, 18G2, passed the Legislature in Lsic'. pp. ooO-l, I tliiiik 
that buth sections of that Act are broad enough to cover this matter, and that tlie Act conteniphites 
such an arrangement as I have suggested. 

Our dead arc lying on the lields unburied (that is no grave being dug), with .small portions of 
earth dug up alongside of the body and thrown over it. In many instances arms and legs, and some- 
times heads, protrude, and my attention has been directed to several places where the hogs were 
actually rooting out the bodies and devouring them. And this on Pennsylvania soil, and in mnny 
cases the bodies of the patriotic soldiers of our State. Humanity calls on us to take measures to 
remedv this ; and I think that it was in the contemplation of the Legislature of 1862 to remedy such 
matters, by making provisions for the honorable burial of the dead of our State who may fall on the 

field. 

My idea is for Pennsylvania to purchase the ground at once, so as to furnish a place for the 
friends of those who are here seeking places for the permanent burial of their fallen ones, to inter them 
at once, and also be a place for the burial of the hundreds who are dying here in the hospitals. The 
other States would certainly, through their Legislatures, in co-operation with our own Legislature, 
contribute towards defraying the expenses of appropriately arranging and decorating the grounds. 
The graves that are marked on the field would, of course, be properly marked when removed to the 
Cemetery, and the bodies should be arranged, as far as practicable, in order of Companies, Regiments, 
Divisions and Corps. 

Dr. Winslow, of the United States Sanitary Commission, tells ine that the United States Govern- 
ment furnish cotiins, and did heretofore furnish a large amount of walnut or locust head-boards, on 
which the name, etc., was burnt into the wood. If the United States Government would furnish these, 
I think the bodies could be disinterred and buried ih this place for about $3.50 or §4 each. 

I hope you will feel justified in authorizing the immediate purchase of this ground, and the re- 
moval of the Pennsylvania dead in the Held to it. I think that an arrangement can be made with the 
oiher States at once for the removal of all the dead, known and unknown. We have a man here who 
superintended the burial of our dead for General Patrick, .and knows where they are, and where the 
Rebel graves are, so that there would be no mistake in taking up the bodies. 

1 know the soldiers in the field would feel most grateful for such a proper mark of respect, on the 
part of our Chief Executive, for his fallen comrades, and the multitude of friends of the fallen dead, 
at home, would rejoice to know that the bodies of their brave kindred have been properly cared for by 
our Governor. 

You will please favor me with an early answer. If -the matter is delayed I am afraid the owners 

of the land might be operated on by speculators. 

With great respect, I remain yours truly, 

DAVID WILLS. 

Governor Curtin, ;i few days after the battle, ^isited Gettysburg, traversed tlie 
battle field, and visited the several hospitals in and around that town, for the purpose 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 3 

of perfecting arrangements for alleviating the sufferings and ministering to the wants 
of the Avounded and dying. He readily approved of the plan submitted by Mr. 
Wills, appointed him agent of the State, and authorized him to open a correspondence 
at once with the Governors of other States, Avhose soldiers had been kUled in the 
battle, and whose bodies were buried on the battle field. 

Mr. Wills lost no time in entering upon the duties for which he had been ap- 
pointed. He communicated with the Governors of the loyal States, and took imme- 
diate steps for procuring the land necessary for the contemplated Cemetery, the par- 
ticulars of which were made known to him in the following letter : — 

Gettysburg, August \lt7i, 1863. 
To His Excellency A. G. Curtin, Governor of Pennsylvania. 

Sir, — By virtue of the authority reposed in me by your Excellency, I have invited the co-opera- 
tion of the several loyal States having soldier-dead on the battle field around this place, in the noble 
project of removing their remains from their present exposed and imperfectly buried condition, on the 
fields for miles around, to a cemeter}'. 

The Chief Executives of fifteen out of the seventeen States have already responded, in most in- 
stances, pledging their States to unite in the movement ; in a few instances, highly approving of the 
project, and stipulating to urge upon the Legislatures to make appropriations to defray their propor- 
tionate share of expense. 

I have also, at your request, selected and purchased the grounds for this Cemetery, the land to be 
paid for by, and the title to be made to, the State of Pennsylvania, and to be held in perpetuity, 
devoted to the object for which it was purchased. 

The grounds embrace about seventeen acres on Cemetery Hill, fronting on the Baltimore turnpike, 
and extending to the Taneytown road. It is the ground which formed the apex of our triangular line 
of battle, and the key to our line of defences. It embraces the highest point on Cemetery Hill, and 
overlooks the whole battle field. It is the spot which should be specially consecrated to this sacred 
purpose. It was here that such immense quantities of our artilleiy were massed, and during Thursday 
and Friday of the battle, from this most important point on the field, dealt out death and destruction 
to the Rebel army in every direction of their advance. 

I have been in conference, at different times, with agents sent here by the Governors of several of 
of the States, and we have arranged details for carrying out this sacred work. I herewith enclose you 
a copy of the proposed arrangement of details, a copy of which I have also sent the Chief Executive 
of each State having dead here. 

I have also, at your suggestion, cordially tendered to each State the privilege, if they desire, of 
joining in the title to the land. 



4 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 

I think it would be showing only a proper respect for the health of tins conninniity not to eoni- 
mence the exininiinij; of the dead, and removal to the Cemetery, nntil tlie month of Novenil)cr ; and 
in the meautimo the grounds shonld be artistically laid out, and cousecratcd b}' appropriate cere- 
monies. 

I am, with great respect, 

Your Excellency's obedient servant. 

DAVID AVILLS. 



Pennsylvania, Executive Ciiambeu, IIauiusburg, August 'd\sl, 1863. 

Dear Siis, — Yours of the 2Gtli instant was dul}' received, and ought to have been answered 
sooner, but you know how I am pressed. 

I am much pleased with the details for the Cemetery which j'oii have so thoughtfully- suggested 
and will be glad, so far as is in my power, to hasten their consummation on the part of Pennsylvania. 

It is of course probable that our sister States, joining with us in this hallowed undertaking, may 
desire to make some alterations and modifications of your proposed plan of purchasing and managing 
these sacred grounds, and it is mj' wish that you give to their views the most careful and respectful 
consideration. Pennsylvania will be so highly honored by the possession within her limits of this 
Soldiers' mausoleum, and so much distinguished among the other States by their contributions in aid 
of so glorious a monument to patriotism and humanity, that it becomes her duty, as it is her melan- 
choly pleasure, to yield, in every reasonable waj', to the wishes and suggestions of the States who 
join with her in dedicating a portion of her territoiy to the solemn uses of a National sepulchre. 

The proper consecration of the grounds must claim our early attention ; and, as soon as we can 
do so, our fellow-purchasers should be invited to join with us in the performance of suitable cere- 
monies on the occasions. 

I am, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

A. G. CURTIN. 
David Wills, Esq. 

It will thus be seen that before six weeks had elapsed from the days of the great 
battle, the land for a cemetery in the most desii-able place had been purchased ; and 
fifteen out of the eighteen loyal States which had been invited to co-operate in the 
movement so promptly set on toot by the State of Pennsylvania, through Governor 
Curtin and Mr. Wills, responded favorably to the call. These States, through their 
several Chief Executives, agreed to unite in the nioAcnicnt. and to urge their I>cgis- 
laturcs to make appropriations to defray their proportionate share of the expense of 
carrying out the contemplated work. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 

Meanwhile, that no time should be lost, Mr. Wills made arrangements with Mr. 
William Saunders, an eminent landscape gardener, to lay out the grounds in State 
lots, apportioned in size to the number of marked graves each State had on the battle 
field. This number was obtained by having a thorough search made for all the graves, 
and a complete list taken of the several names marked on them. Great care was 
taken to identify the bodies of the dead. In most instances the names of the occu- 
pants of graves were written upon small rough boards with a lead pencil. In others 
they Avere identified by letters, papers, receipts, certificates, diaries, memorandum 
books, photographs, marks on the clothing, belts or cartridge boxes, etc. In this 
manner, out of 3,564 bodies interred in the Cemetery, the names of 2,585 were ascer- 
tained, while 979 remaui unknown. 

As soon as the grounds w^ere laid out for the Cemetery, the bodies were carefiUly 
taken up, placed in separate coffins and re-interred in the places assigned them, so that 
the soldiers from each State were laid together. A large number of articles were 
found on the bodies, which aided, in a great measure, to identify them. These were 
carefully preserved and arranged in a room assigned for the pu.rpose, where the fami- 
lies and friends of the deceased could obtain them upon appHcation. A list of these 
articles, with the names of the soldiers upon whose bodies they were found, is printed 
in the Report of the Select Committee relating to the Soldiers' National Cemetery, 
presented to the Legislature of the State of Pennsylvania, in 18(55. A list is also 
preserved in the register of the dead, at the Cemetery. 

CONSECRATION OF THE NATIONAL CEMETERY. 

It being deemed advisable to consecrate the Cemetery with appropriate cere- 
monies, as soon as the bodies were all re-uiterred, and before the season suitable for 
such ceremonies had passed, Mr. Wills, a,s agent for the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
with the consent of all the Governors, addressed a note to the Honorable Edward 
Everett, inviting him to join in the ceremonies, and deliver the oration on the occa- 
sion, which it was proposed should take place on the 23rd of October following. To 
this the following reply was received :- — 

Boston, September 26tJi, 18G3. 
Mt Dear Sir,— I have received your favor of the 23rd instant, inviting me, on behalf of the 
Governors of the States interested in the preparation of a Cemetery for the soldiers who fell in the 
great battles of July last, to deliver an address at the consecration. I feel much complimented by 



fi ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 

this request, ami would I'hooiriiUy uiulprtakc the iierformance of a ihity at once so interesting and 
honorable. It is, however, wholh" out of my power to make the requisite preparntiou by tlie 23rd of 
October. I am under engagements which will occupy all my time from Monday next to the r2th of 
October, and, indeed, it is doubtful whether, during the whole month of October, I shall have a day at 
mj- command. 

The occasion is one of great importance, not to be dismissed with a few sentimental or patriotic 
common-places. Tt will demand as full a narrative of the events of the three important days as the 
limits of the hour will admit, and some appropriate discussion of the political character of the grfeat 
struggle, of which the battle of Gettysburg is one of the most momentous incidents. As it will take 
me two days to reach Gettysburg, and it will be highly desirable that I should have at least one d.ay 
to survey the battle field, I cannot safely name an earlier time than the lOth of November. 

Should such a postponement of the day first proposed be advisable, it will give me great pleasure 
to accept the invitation. 

I remain, dear sir, with much respect, 

Verj' trulj- yours, 

EDWARD EVERETT. 
David Wills, Esq., Agent for the National Cemetery. 

In accordance with the wishes of Mr. Everett the dedication took place on the 
19th of November, 1863, accompanied by appropriate and imposing ceremonies. 

CHARTER OF THE NATIONAL CEMETERY. 

The commissioners of the several States having lots in the Cemetery, held their 
first meeting at Harrisburg, on the 17th of December, 1863. Twelve States were 
represented, and the remaining five signified their assent in the action of the conven- 
tion. At this meeting the following plan for holding the land purchased for the 
Cemetery and its general management was agreed upon. 

First. " That the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shall hold the title to the 
land which she has purchased at Gettysburg for the Soldiers' National Cemetery, in 
trust for the States ha^•ing soldiers buried there, in perpetuity, for the purpose to 
which it is now applied." 

Second. " That the Legislature of Pennsylvania be requested to create a cor- 
poration, to be managed by trustees, one to be appointed by each of the Governors 
of the States represented at the meeting, or which have consented to join in the 
purchase of the land, and in otherwise carrying out the plans contemplated for the 
Cemeterv ; which trustees shall, at their first meeting, be divided into three classes. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 7 

The term of office of the &st class to be one year ; the second, two years ; and the 
third, three years. The vacancies thus occurring to be fUled by the several Governors ; 
and the persons thus appointed to fill such vacancies, to hold their office for the 
term of three years. The corporation to have exclusive control of the Soldiers' 
National Cemetery." 

At this meeting estimates were submitted of the cost of the Cemetery and 
proposed monument, and the several States appointing trustees, were to be asked 
to ajjpropriate a sum of money, to be determined by a division of the estimated 
expenses, according to their representation in Congress, to be expended in defraying 
the cost of removing and re-interring the dead, and fuiishing the Cemetery, under 
the du'ections of the corporation. A committee was appointed at this meeting to 
procure designs for a monument to be erected in the Cemetery. 

In compliance with the wishes of the Commissioners as above stated, the Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania, at the January Session, 1864, passed the following : — 

AN ACT TO INCORPORATK THE SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY. 

Whereas, The Commonwealth of Penns3ivania has purchased seventeen acres of laud on Ceme- 
tery Hill, on the Gettjsburg battle field, in the county- of Adams, for a Cemetery for the burial of the 
remains of the soldiers who fell in the battle of Gettysburg, and the skirmishes incident thereto, in 
defence of the Union, or died thereafter from wounds received in that battle and the skirmishes ; 
therefore, 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the cmthority of the same, That the 
titles to the said lands purchased, as set forth in the foregoing preamble, are hereby ratified and con- 
firmed, and shall vest and remain in said Commonwealth, in fee simple, in trust for all the States 
having soldiers buried in said grounds ; and the said grounds shall be devoted in perpetuity to the 
purpose for which they were purchased, namelj' : for the burial and place of final rest of the remains 
of the soldiers who fell in defence of the Union, in the battle of Gettysburg ; and, also, the remains 
of the soldiers who fell at other points north of the Potomac river, in the several encounters with the 
enemj' during the invasion of Lee, in the summer of one thousand eight hundred and sixtj'-three, or 
died thereafter in consequence of wounds received in said battle and during said invasion. 

Section 2. That B. W. Norris, of the State of Maine, , of the State of New Hamp- 
shire ; Paul Dillingham, of the State of Vermont ; Henry Edwards, of the State of Massachusetts ; 
John R. Bartlett, of the State of Ehode Island ; Alfred Coit, of the State of Connecticut ; Edward 

Cooper, of the State of New York ; , of the St,ate of New Jersey ; David Wills, of the 

State of Pennsylvania; Benjamin Deford, of the State of Mar^'land ; John R. Latimer, of the State 
of Delaware; , of the State of West Virginia; Gordon Lofland, of the State of Ohio; 



8 ORIGIN AM) IIISTOHY OF THE 

.Toliii G. Stephenson, of the State of Indiann ; Clark E. Can-, of tlie State of Illinois; W. Y. 

Selieck. of the State of Wisconsin ; Thomas Wiiite Ferry, of the State of Michigan ; , of 

the State Minnesota, being one Conmiissioner from eacli State, having soldiers bnried in said Ceme- 
tery', be and tliey and their successors are herebj' created a bod^' politic in law, under the name, style 
and title of the Soldiers' National Cejiktkuy, and by that name, style and title shall have perpetual 
succession, and be able and capable iu law to have and use a common seal, to sue and be sued, plead 
and be impleaded, in all courts of law and equity, and to do all such other things as arc incident to a 
corporation. 

Section 3. The care and management of the grounds referred to iu the preamble and first 
section of this act, are horeliy entrusted solely to the commissioners named iu the second section of 
the same, and those hereafter appointed to represent the States therein named, and their successors in 
office ; the said commissioners shall constitute a board of managers, whose duty it shall be, out of 
funds that may be in the hands of the treasurer of the corpor.ation, by State appropriations, or other- 
wise, to remove the remains of all the soldiers referred to in the fu'st section of this act, that have not 
already' been removed to the Ceraeterj-, and have them properly interred therein; and, also, to lay 
out, fence and ornament, to divide and arrange into suitable plots and buri.al lots, establish carri.ige 
ways, avenues and foot-w.ays, erect buildings, and a monument, or monuments, and suitable marks to 
designate the graves, and generally to do all other things iu their judgment necessary and proper to 
be done to adapt the ground and ])reinises to the uses for which it has been purchased and set apart. 

Section 4. The business of the corporation shall be conducted by the commissioners aforesaid, 
and their successors in office ; the said commissioners shall meet within sixty days after the passage 
of this act, and organize by electing one of their number president; they shall also appoint a secretary 
and treasurer, and shall have power to cmplo}- such other officers and agents as m.ay be needful ; the3- 
shall require of the treasurer to enter into bonds, to the corporation, iu double the probable amount of 
money that may be in his hands at any one time during his term of office, with two or more sutHcient 
sureties, conditioned for the faithful discharge of his duties, and the correct accounting for and paying 
over of the money ; which said bond or bonds, shall be approved by the court of connnon pleas of 
Adams county, and recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds in and for said county ; the term 
of oflfice of the officers of the board of commissioners aforesaid shall expire on the first day of 
January-, of each and everj- year, or as soon thereafter as their successors may be duly chosen and 
qualified to act. 

. Section 5. At the first meeting of the commissioners heretofore named, they shall be divided, 
bj- lot, into three classes, and the term of office of the first class shall expire on the first da}- of 
January, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five ; the second class, on the first A&y 
of Januarj', Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and the third class on the first 
day of Januar}-, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven ; the vacancies thus 
occurring shall be filled by the Governors of the States which the said commissioners represented ; and 
the persons thus appointed to fill such vacancies, shall hold their office, as commissioners aforesaid, 
for the term of three years. In case of the neglect, or failure, of the (iovernor of any State, having 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 9 

burial lots in the Cemetery, to fill such vacancy, the board of commissioners may supply the place by 
appoiiiting a citizen of the particular State which is not represented in the board by reason of such 
vacancy ; any vacancies not yet filled, or hereafter occurring, in the board of commissioners, by death, 
resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled, l)y appointment, for the unexpired term, by the Governor of 
the State which the person represented, or in case of failure by such Governor to make said appoint- 
ment, then the place shall be supplied as last above indicated ; such other States of the Union, not having 
burial lots in said Cemei ery, but that may at any time hereafter desire to be represented in this corpora- 
tion, shall have tlie privilege of nominating a commissioner to represent them severally in the board of 
commissioners, and thereafter pay their proportionate share of the expense of maintaining said Cemetery. 

Section G. The board of commissioners shall annually, at the end of each fiscal year, make a 
report of the condition and management of the Cemetery ; which report shall contain a detailed state- 
ment of the receipts and expenditures of the corporation, and a copy thereof sh.all be forwarded to 
the Governor of each State represented in the corporation. The expenses incident to the removal 
of the dead, the enclosing and ornamenting the Cemetery, and all the work connected therewith, and 
its future maintenance, shall be apportioned among the States connecting themselves with the corpora- 
tion, according to their population, as indicated by their representation in the House of Representa- 
tives of the United States. 

Section 7. The board of commissioners shall adopt such by-laws, rules and regulations, as they 
may deem necessary for their meetings and government, and for the government of their officers, 
agents and employes, and for the care and protection of the cemetery grounds, and the property of 
the corporation : Provided, Said by-laws, rules and regulations be not inconsistent with the Constitu- 
tion and laws of the United States, the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
and this act of incorporation. 

Section 8. The board of commissioners shall have no power to appropriate any of the funds of 
the corporation as a compensation for their services as commissioners. 

Section 9. The grounds and property of said Cemetery shall be forever free from the levy of 
any State, county, or municipal taxes ; and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby releases, and 
exempts, the corporation created by this act of Assembly, from the payment of any enrollment tax, 
or any tax, or taxes, whate\ei', that might be imposed by existing laws ; all the laws of this Common- 
wealth now in force, or which may hereafter be enacted, for the protection of cemeteries, burial 
grounds, and places of sepulture, shall apply with full force and effect to the Soldiers' National 
Cemetery, hereby incorporated, immediately from and after the passage of this act. 

Section 10. The corporation of the Soldiers' National Cemetery shall have power to receive 
appropriations from the United States, and from the State Legislatures, and also devises, and bequests, 
gifts, annuities, and all other kinds of property, real and personal, for the purposes of the burial of 
the dead, enclosing and ornamenting the grounds, and maintaining the same, and erecting a monu- 
ment, or monuments, therein. 

HENRY C. JOHNSON, Speaker of the House of Rejyresentatives. 

JOHN P. TES'SY, Sjwaker of the Senate. 
Approved — The twent\-fifth day of March, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
four. A. G. CURTIN. 
2 



10 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 



rOMMISSIONF.US OF THK STATES AND Till: IW)\I!I) OF MAN VriF.RS. 

The following were the Commissioners of the States romposiiio; the first Board 



of Managers : — 

B. W. Norris, Esq., - - Maine. 

lion. Ira Perley, Chief Justice, New Ilampshiro. 

His Excolloney Paul Dillins;liam, 

tiovonior of Vermont. 
Henry Eihvards, Esq., - Massachusetts. 

Hon. Jolm U. Bartlett, 

Secretary of State of Rliode Island. 
Alfred Coit, Esq., - - - Connecticut. 
Edward Cooper, Esq., - - New York. 
Levi Scobey, Esq., - - - New Jersey. 
Hon. David Wills, - - rennsylvania. 



John R. Latimer, Esq. - - Delaware. 

( No appointn.ent after his death.) 
Benjanun Deford, Esq., - Mar^-land. 

Hon. Chester W. Hubbard, - West Virginia. 

(U. S. House of Representatives.) 
Col. Gordon Lofland, - - Ohio. 
John G. Stephenson, Esq., - Indiana. 
Clai-k E. Carr, Esq., - - Illinois. 
Hon. T. White Ferry, (U. S. Senate), Michigan. 
W. Y. Selleck, Esq., - - Wisconsin. 
Hon. Alex. Ramsaj', (U. S. Senate), Minnesota. 



'Hic following changes were suhseqnently made by tlie retirement of the first 
( 'onnuissioncrs : — 

Robert H. McCurdy, Esq., was appointed from New York in 18C.5. 

Hon. A. G. Hammond, " " 

Hon. William Ilcbard, " " 

Stephen Coburn, Esq., '' " 

James Drake, Esq., " " 

Edward M. Dubois, Esq., " " 

William S. Charnley, Esq., 

Charles Northond, Esq., " " 

At the first meeting for the organization of the Board of Trustees, held at 
Gettysburg, April Gth. 1H()4. the following oflficers were chosen:* — 

David Wills, of Gettysburg, President. 
John R. Bartlett, of Providence, Secretary. 
Samuel R. Russell, of Gettysburg, Treasurer. 



Connecticut 




186.5. 


Vermont 




18G5. 


]\[aine 




18G6. 


Indiana 




1865. 


New Jersey 




1867. 


Connecticut 




1868. 


Connecticut 




1870. 



* At this meeting the executive committoe elected wore Jolm R T>ati:iipr, of Delaware ; Benjamin Doford, 
of Maryland : and Levi Scobey, of New Jersey. On the death of Mr. l>atinier. Robert 11. IMcCurdy, of New 
York, was elected in his place; and Mr. Selleck, of Wisconsin, .-vnd Mr. Edwards, of Massachusetts, added to 
the committee. The executive committee so constituted continued, without change, until the completion of the 
monument and tlie surrender of Ihu Cemet(>ry to the United States. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 



11 



Executive Committee. Aziditing Committee. 

Robert II. McCurdy, of New York. Henry Edwards, of Massachusetts. 

Benjamin Deford, of Maryland. Gordon Lofland, of Ohio. 

Win. Y. Selleck, of Wisconsin. John R. Bartlett, of Rhode Island. 
Levi Scobej-, of New Jersej'. 
Henrj' Edwards, of Massachusetts. 

Proposals having been invited for designs and estimates for a monument, to be 
erected within the Cemetery, to the memory of the soldiers who fell in the battles of 
Gettysburg, through advertisements in newspapers pubUshed in New York, Phila- 
delphia, Cincinnati and Boston, a number Avere submitted. The Trustees, after 
mature deliberation, gave the preference to that submitted by J. G. Battersou, of 
Hartford, the plan being for a shaft of granite, with tigures of white marble on the 
four buttresses, and a figure of the same material on the summit of the monument. 

The Trustees having determined to enclose the Cemetery grounds with a sub- 
stantial stone wall, with an iron fence in front, an im2)osing gateway of granite, a 
lodge for the keeper, and with headstones to each of the graves, it was found that a 
sum much larger than that originally anticipated would be necessary. The desire of 
the Trustees for additional appropriations, upon being made known to the several 
loval States, was promptly responded to by them, and the amount required placed at 
the disposal of the Trustees. 



C0NTKII51TI0XS OF THE SEVERAL STATES. 



The following were the total apportionments made by the Board of Trustees to 
the several States having dead buried in the Cemetery, the respective sums being in 
the ratio of their rejjresentation in the Congress of the United States, were paid as 
follows, viz. : — 



Maine, 

New Hampshire, 

Vermont, 

Massachusetts, 

Rhode Island, 

Connecticut, 

New York, - 

New Jersey, 

Penns3-lvauia, 

Delaware, 



$4,205 30 
2,523 18 
2,523 18 
8,430 GO 
1,682 12 
3,364 24 

26,072 86 
4,205 30 

20\185 44 
841 06 



Maryland, - 
West Virginia, 
Ohio, - 
Indiana, - 
Illinois, 
Michigan, 
Wisconsin, - 
Minnesota, 

Total -amount. 



$4,205 30 

- 2,523 18 
15,980 14 

- 9,251 66 
11,774 84 

- 5,046 36 
5,046 36 

- 1,682 12 

$129,523 24 



1-i 



ORiaiX AXD HISTORY OF THE 



Till. ( i;.miti:kv and grounds aujack.nt. 

The Cemetery gioiuids embrace seA"cnteeu arres of land, on what is known as 
" Cemetery llill." on the west side of tlie Baltimore turnpike, and adjoining the local 
burial-gronnd. It is tliat on wliich the centre of our line of battle rested on the 
second and third days of July, and the most prominent and important position on the 
whole battle-field. These gronnds haye been tastefully laid out with walks and 
lawns by ^Ir. AVilliani Saunders, landscape gardener, of AA'ashington, and ])lanted 
with trees and shrubs. Jn the middle and broadest jxirtion is the Cemetery jiroper ; 
a semi-circle, within which the bodies of the falli'ii soldiers are interred, and in the 
centre of Ayhich stands the monument, separated by a low ])elt of shrubbery, from 
the grayes. The head-stones to the grayes are all alike, and form a continnons line of 
granite blocks, rising nine inches aboye the ground, showing a face or width of eight 
inches on their upper surface. The name, company and regiment of each soldier is 
sculptured on the head-stones, thus securing a simple and expressiye arrangement, 
combined with great durability. A. plan of the grounds will be found in the yolume, 
l)y a reference to which, the exact ])osition of the scyeral State lots Avill be seen. 

The entrance to the ( 'emctery grounds is on the Baltimore turnpike, through a 
large iron gateway, appropriately oruainented. «ith an iron fence tlu^ whole length of 
the front. The diyision line betw^een the soldiers" and the local cemeterj' is simply a 
low iron fence, the remainder being enclosed by a substantial stone Ayall, surmounted 
with a heaving capping. 

0\\ the right of the gateway a lodge has been erected for the keeper of the 
Cemetery. 

The interments in the Soldiers" National Cemetery are as follows : — 



Maine, 


- 


- 101 bodies. 


West Virgiuia, - 


11 


bodies. 


New Hampshire, - 




49 




Ohio, - - - - 


131 


C( 


Veriiiout, - 


- 


- 61 




Indiana, . - - 


- 80 


t£ 


Massachusetts, 




159 




Illinois, 


6 


»i 


Rhode Island, - 


- 


- 12 




Michigan, - 


- 171 


U 


Connecticut, - 




22 




Wisconsin, 


73 


ii 


New York, 


- 


- 867 




Minnesota, 


- 52 


ii 


New Jersey, - 




78 




United States Regulars 


138 


(t 


rcnnsj-lvania, - 


- 


- 5;54 




Tince lots with unknown 


dead, 9 70 


fci 


Delaware, 




J5 














Maryland,- 


- 


22 




Total, - - - - 


3,564 


u 









H 














X 














m 


o 












o> 


M 












O 
1- 


CO 

s 










O 


o 


Z 


H 




1 E 




m 


m 

30 


o 




m 


1^ 


^^ 


CO 


z 


►^ 


Q 


OJ 


"■ >■ ^ 

3 § 
1 -^ 


u 


c 

30 


5 

z 
> 
r- 


^ 1 


o 
a 




7 




•o 


C 


o 




? 




> 


o 
m 

S 
m 
H 
m 

30 
•< 




00 






SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 



13 



List of Regiments in the different corps of the Army of the Potomac, in the 
battle of Gettysburg : — 



KEGIMEXT. 



3rd. 
4th., 
5th.. 



3rd 
3rd 
(!th 



REGIMENT. 



0th 

7th 

16th 



Gill 

Gth 

1st 



REGIMENT. 



17th 

I'Jth 

20th. , 



. . 3rd. 
. . 2ud. 
. . 5th. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



KEGIMEST. 



2nd 



3rd 



REGIMENT. 



5th . 



2nd 



REGIMENT. 



12th. 



3rd. 



VERMONT. 



REGIMENT. 



2nd. 
3rd.. 
4th.. 
5th.. 



Gth. 
Gth. 
Gth. 
Gth. 



REGIMENT. 



6th.. 
1st . 
12th. 
13th. 



Gth. 
2nd, 
Lst 
1st 



REGIMENT. 



14th. 

iruh. 

IGth. 
19th. 



. 1st. 
. 1st. 
. 1st. 
.2nd. 



MASSAOHDSETTS. 



REGIMENT. 



Lst 

2nd ... 
7th.... 
9th 

10th.... 
nth.... 



1st . 
12th 
Gth. 
5th. 
Gth. 
3rd . 



REGIMENT. 



12th. 
13th. 
15th. 
10th. 
ISth. 
19th. 



1st . 
1st . 
2nd. 
.'ird , 
5th . 
2nd. 



REGIMENT. 



20th. . 
22nd.. 
28th. . 
32ud.. 
33rd . 
37th.. 



2nd. 

5th. 
2nd. 

5th. 
11th. 

Gth. 



CONSECTICDT. 



REGIMENT. 



5th... 
14th. 



12th. 
2nd. 



REGIMENT. 



REGIMENT. 



17th. 
27th. 



nth. 
2nd . 



20th. 



12th. 



RHODE ISLAND. 

2nd Regiment, Gth Corps. 1st Regiment Light Artillerj-, Batteries A, B and E. 



14 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 



NEW YORK. 



9th... 

lltll.. 
20tli.. 
30tli.. 

a;ii(]. 

39th. 
40th. 
41st . 
4l'iu1 
4;ird.. 
41th. 
4Jtli. 
49th . 
52iul 
54th . 
.o7th . 
58th . 
59th . 
COth . 
Gist. 
6-_'nd. 
63rd. 



1st 
1st 
1st 

1st 



6th . 
•2nd. 
3rd . 
11th. 
2 lid. 
6tli . 
5th . 
nth. 

r.tii.. 

211(1. 

nth, 

2iid. 

nth. 

2iid. 
12th. 
2iid.. 
6th.. 
2nd.. 



RfXilMENT. 



64th . 

65tli . 
6(;th . 
G7th . 
68th . 
69th . 
70th . 
71st . 
72nd. 
73rd . 
74th . 
70th . 
77th . 
78th . 

82ll(l. 

SOth . 
88th . 
94th . 
95tli . 
97th . 
104th. 
107th. 



■Jiul. , 
6tli . 
2nd. 
6th 

nth. 

2iid . 
3rd . 
3rd . 
3rd . 
3rd . 
3rd . 
1st . 
6tli . 
12th. 
2iid . 
3rd . 
2ud. 
1st . 
1st . 
1st . 
1st . 
12th. 



UEGIJIEST. 



108th . 
111th . 
ir.ilh . 
]20tli . 
121st . 
122iid. 
123rd . 
124th . 
125th . 
126tli . 
137tli . 
140th . 
145tli . 
IKIth . 
147th . 
149lh . 
150th . 
153rd . 
154th . 
157tli . 



2nd. 

2iid. 

nth. 

3rd. 

6th. 

6th. 
12lh. 
;'.rd. 
2nd. 
2nd. 
12th. 
2iid. 
12th. 

5th. 



1st. 
12th. 
12th. 

nth. 

lltll. 
nth. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



REGIMENT. 



P. R. 

nth.. 

23rd., 
26tli.. 
27th.. 
28th.. 
29th.. 
46th., 
49lh., 
53rd.. 
57th. 
61st.. 
62nd 
63rd., 
68th., 
69th., 
71st., 
72nd 
7.">rd. 
74th. 



V. C. 



5tli.. 

1st... 

6th.. 

3rd .. 

nth 

12tli 

12th 

12th 

6th .. 

2nd.. 

3rd.. 

6th .. 

5th .. 

3rd . 

."rd . 

2n(l.. 

2nd.. 

2nd.. 

nth. 

lltll. 



KEGIMHST. 



75th , 

81 st , 



]06th 
107tli 
109th 
IKith 
1 11 th 



nth 





.S2nd 

83rd 

84th 

88tli 

90tli 

91st 

03,rd 


6th . . . 






5tli . . . 






3rd , . . 






1 st ... 






1 St ... 
5th.... 
6tli . . . 










9.-)tli 


fith 


1 «)Gth 


Oth 


!),St1. 


Oth 




99lli 

102iid 

I(t5tli 


3r<l . . . 
6th . . . 










3rd' 



1st . 
12th, 
3rd . 
12th, 



11 4th . 

n5tii , 
ncih . 
listh , 
119th , 
121st , 
134tli , 
139tli . 
140th . 
141st , 
142iid, 
143rd 
146th 
1 17th , 
USth , 
149th , 
150tli , 
151st , 
154tli 
155th , 



3rd. 
3r<l. 
2nd. 
5th. 



6th. 
1st. 

nth. 

6th. 
2nd. 
3rd. 



1st. 

1st. 

5th. 
12th. 
2nd. 

1st. 

1st. 

1st. 

nth. 

5th. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT OETTTSBURG 



15 







NEVT JKRSEV. 








BEGIMEST. 


CORPS. ' 


REGIMENT. CORPS. 


REGISIEN-T. 


CORPS. 




1 of 




7th 


12th 


O11.I 


,Stll 


i;3th 


^•^A 


oth 


loth 


fith 


lull 












DELAWARE. 








BEGIMEST. 


CORPS. 


REGDIEST. CORPS. 


EEGIMEXT. 


CORPS. 




1st 


2nd 


2nd 2nd 








MARTLASD. 








BEOraEXT. 


CORPS. 


REGIMENT. CORPS. 


REGIMENT. 


CORPS. 


1st 


12tll 


3,-d , 12th 














TIKGrKIA. 









7th Regiment, 2nd Corps. 



BEGISIENT. 



BEGIMEST. 



;jth 
7th. 
4th 
8th 



12th 23rd 

12th 29th. 

2nd 61st. 

2nd '' 66th. 



11th. 
12th. 
1 1 th . 
12th. 



75th 


11th 


,S2nd 


11th. 


107 


11th. 



82nd Eegiment. 11th Corps. 



HTDIANA. 



REGIMENT. 



EEGIMEN-T. 



7th.. 

14th. 



1st 19th.. 

2nd ! 20th., 



1st 
1st 



REGniEKT. 



. 27th. 



12th. 



1(1 



ORIGIN AXD IIISTOBY OF THE 



MICHIGAN. 



IIECIMENT. 



1st. 
5th. 



th. 
3rfl. 



KEfMJIKNT. 



■Uh 
7th 



5th . 
12th . 



IGth 
24th 



5th. 
1st. 



WISCONSIN. 



REGIMENT. 


CORl'S. 


REGIMENT. 


CORIS. 


RKCIMEXT. 


coiti's. 


9m.1 


1 .^t 


0th 


6th 


7th '' nth. 


3i(l 


12th 


i Glh 


1st 


•>,;tli 1 





1st Rogimeut, 2n(l Corps. 



MINNESOTA. 



UNITKD STATES. 



HEGIMENT. 



2 ml sharp sh 

1st 

2n(l Infantry 

3nl 




REGIMENT. 



4th Infantry. . 
6th " ".. 
7tli '■ 
10th " .. 



5th.. 
5th.. 
5tli.. 
5th . 



REGIMENT. 



nth Infantry.. 5tli. 

121h " ..] 5tli. 

14th " ..' 5t.h. 

17th '• ..1 5th. 



Cavalry Corps. 
Maine. — 1st Regiment. 
Vermont. — 1st Regiment. 
Massachusetts. — 1st Regiment. 
Rliode Island. — 1st Regiment. 
New York.— 2n(l, 4th, 5th, Gtli, 8tli, 9th and 

10th Regiments. 
New Jersey. — 1st Regiment. 
Pennsylvania.— 1st, 2nd, .".rd, 4tii, Gth, 8th, 

16th, 17th and 18th Regiments. 
Virginia. — 1st and 3rd Regiments. 
Ohio. — 6th Regiment. 
Indiana. — 3rd Regiment. 
Illinois. — 8th and 12th Regiments. 
Michigan. — 1st, 5th, 6th and 7th Regiments. 
"Wisconsin. — 1st Regiment. 
United States.— 1st, 2nd, 5lli and Ctli Regi- 
meuls. 



Artillery Reserve -Corps. 

Massachusetts.: — 5th and 9th Regiments. 

New York. — 1st Regiment, B and G, 7th Inde- 
pendent, 15th Independent, 30lh Indepen- 
dent, 32nd Independent and 1st Independent. 

New Jersey. — 1st Regiment (A). 

Pennsjdvania. — 1st Regiment (C), 4th Regi- 
ment, Independent. 

Maryland. — 1st and (Uh Regiments. 

Rhode Island. — 1st Regiment Light Artillery 
(Batteries C and G). 

Virginia. — 1st Regiment. 

Ohio. — 1st Regiment (II). 

United States.— 1st Regiment (II), 3rd Regi- 
ment (K), 4th Regiment (C), 4th Regiment 
(K). 




I ^^ 





SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 17 

MOM .ME^'T TO GENERAL JOHN F. KEYNOLDS. 

Soon after the battle of Gettysburg a desire was expressed to erect a monument 
to the memory of Major-General John F. Reynolds, who fell early in the contest. 
To raise the funds necessary for the purpose, a committee of officers, who served in 
the corps which had been commanded by the deceased general, was appointed. The 
original subscription was restricted to five dollars from each officer, and fiftv cents 
from each enlisted man. by which mc^ns nearly |6,000 Avas collected. 

In 1867, it having l)een decided to erect a bronze statue to the general, the State 
of Pennsylvania gave a sufficient number of condemned cannon for the purpose. It 
was at first contemplated to erect a plain monument of stone on the spot where 
General Reynolds fell, but when a more imposing memorial was determined upon, 
the managers of the Soldiers' National Cemetery came forward and appropriated a 
sum sufficient to construct a foundation and erect a suitable pedestal, upon which to 
]3lace the statue of General Reynolds within the Cemetery grounds. This amounted 
to twenty-two hundred dollars. This assistance, with additional s\d)scriptions from 
officers who had served with the general, enabled the committee to complete the 
monument. 

Upon entering the Cemetery, this beautiful monument meets the eve. It consists 
of a bronze statue of General Reynolds, of heroic size, standing on a pedestal of dark 
Quincy granite. The right hand of the general, holding a field glass, hangs at his 
side, while the left grasps the hilt of his sword. The face is turned towards that 
part of the field on which the enemy were advancing when he received the fatal shot. 
The statute was cast at the foundry of Messrs. Robert Wood & Company, Philadel- 
phia, from a design and model by Mr. J. Q. A. "Ward, of New York. 

TRANSFER OF THE SOLDIERs' NATIONAL CEMETERY TO THE UNITED STATES. 

The Cemetery having been completed, and the care of it l)y Commissioners from 
SO many States being burdensome and expensive, the Board of ^lanagers, on the 
twenty-second of June, 1871, passed the following preamble and resolutions : — 

Whereas, By an Act of the General Assemblv of Pennsylvania, passed on the fourteenth of April, 
18G8, the Commissioners having charge and care of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, 
are authorized to transfer all the right, title, interest and care of the said Soldiers' National Cemetery, 



IS OHIO IN AND lllSTOliY OF THE 

upon llic ioiii|)lfti()ii 1)1' tlio same, to the Government of the United States, the Connnonwealth of 
IVnnsvlvaniu thereby ceding am! relinquishing to the United States all its title to the grounds and 
pioperty of tiio said Cemetery vested in it in trust for the States which participated in the establish- 
ment of the said National Cemetery, the cession being made upon condition that the United States 
Government take upon itself the management and care of said Cemetery and make provision for its 
maintenance; and u-lttiras the Cemeti'ry is now completed, and, by a recent Act of Congress, the 
Secretarv of War wgs empowered and directed to accept and take charge of the Soldiers' National 
Cemetery at Gettysburg, and the Antietam National Cemetery at Sharpsburg, Maryland, whenever 
the Commissioners and Trustees having charge of said Cemeteries are ready to transfer their care to 
the General Government ; that when the aforesaid Cemeteries are placed under the control of the 
Secretarv of AVar, they be taken care of and maintained in accordance with the provisions of the Act 
of Congress, entitled "An Act to establish and piotect National Cemeteries, approved February 22nd, 
1867." Now, therefere. 

Resolved, That the Commissioners to the said Soldiers' National Ccxetery, at Gettysburg, assent 
and agree to the transfer of the said Cemetery to the Government of the I'nited States according to 
the provisions of the said Act of the General Assembly of reuusylvania, and are ready to make the 
transfer accordingly. 

Resolved, That David Wills, Esq., the President of this Board, be, and he iiereby is, authorized 
and empowered, as the Agent of the Board and of the Cemetery, to make transfer of the Cemetery 
to the proper officer or party authorized to receive the same on the part of the United States, and to 
do all other acts and things necessary and proper to make and complete the said transfer. 

In puisiuince of" the authority thus conferred on Uavid "Wills, he i in mediately 
commenced a correspondence with the Secretary of War in reference to the transfer 
of the care of the Cemetery to the United States. After several conferences the 
title to the Cemetery was finally made to and accepted by the United States, and on 
the first of May, IHI^, the United States took full tiud complete possession of the 
Cemetery, and now has the care and control of it. 

Previotis to the final acljoiiriunciit of the Jloard, on the twenty-second of June, 
ISII, the members deemed it a duty they owed to tlie patriotic /eal and ener<,'y of 
David AVills, in the promotion of this work, to put on record an expression of their 
estimate of his labors, when Judge Pcrley offered the following resolution, \\hich 
^\ as unanimously passed : — 

Resolved, That tlie Commissioners to tlic Soldiers' National Cemetery, being about to deliver 
over the care of that Institution to the (iovcrnment of the United States, are unwilling to separate 
without expressing on the Record our sense of the high value of the services of David Wills, Esq., 
the President, in conducting tlie general alfairs of the Cemetery. In our judgment it is owing in 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT OETTYSBURG. 19 

great measure to his patriotic zeal, to his enterpiise, his untiring diligence, his good judgment and 
taste, that the Commissioners are able to deliver over the Cenieterj- free from all pecuniarv obligation, 
and in a condition which we are confident will be satisfactory to those for whom we have acted, and 
to the public. 

DESCItlPTIOX OF THE GETTYSBi:R{J .MOM .MENT. 

The design of the Gettysburg monument is intended to be purely historical, 
telling its own story, with such simplicity that any disccrniug mind will readily com- 
prehend its meaning and purpose. 

The superstructure is sixty feet high, and consists of a massive pedestal of light 
grey granite, from Westerly, Rhode Island, twenty-five feet square at the base, and is 
crowned with a colossal statue of white marble, representing the oEMts of liberty. 
Standing upon a three-(iuarter globe, she holds with her riglit hand the victor's wreath 
of laurel, while with her left she clasps the victorious sword. 

Projecting from the angles of the pedestal are four buttresses, supporting an 
equal number of allegorical statues of white marble, representing respectively, war. 
HISTORY, peace and plenty. 

War is personified by a statue of an American soldier, who, restmg from the 
conflict, relates to History the story of the battle which tliis monument is intended to 
commemorate. 

History, in listening attitude, records with stylus and tablet, the achievements of 
the field, and the names of the honored dead. 

Peace is symbolized by a statue of the American mechanic, characterized by 
appropriate accessories. 

Plenty is represented by a female figure, with a sheaf of wheat and fruits of the 
earth, typifying peace and abundance as the soldiers" crowning triumph. 

These beautiful pieces of statuary, together -^Vith the monumeift, were designed 
by J. G. Batterson, Esq., of Hartford, Connecticut, and executed in Italy, under 
the immediate supervision of Randolph Rogers, Esq., the distinguished American 
sculptor. 

The main die of the pedestal is octagonal in form, panelled upon eacli face. 
The cornice and plinth above are also octagonal, and are heavily moulded. I'pon this 
plinth rests an octagonal moulded base bearing upon its face, in high relief, the 
National arms. 



•>'() 



ORIOJN AND HISTORY. 



I'lic ii|)|)(M- (lir imil cap arc circular in form, tlic die hcint;' encircled hv stars 
(■([ual in nnnd)er with the States whose sous gave up their li\es as the price of the 
\ ictor\ wcni at ( iett^ sl)iiri>'. 

'{"his inouunient. as it stands, cost fifty thousand dollars. The purchase of" the 
u;round. the removal and re-iutturiui;' of tlu' dead, the i^ranite headstones, the stone 
wall and iron fence. tlu> tiatewav and the porter's lodge, and the laying out and the 
ornaiueiitatioii of the grounds, cost abt)ut eighty thousand dollars. The '• Kcynolds 
Statue "" cost ten thousand dollars; thus making tlu^ entire cost of tlie Cemetery, the 
monument and the Revnolds statue, about one hundreil and fortv thousand dollars. 




EXERCISES 



AT THE 



(fmiKccratioii of tln| l^Iatioiral |tmtteru at |fttpl)ur0. 



NOVEMBER 1'.)tii. 1803. 



THE CONSECRATION. 



C^**HE consecration of the Cemetery was an occasion of deep interest. The 
'^|l J pnblic generally were in\itcd to be present and participate in the exercises, 
^ and special invitations we;-e sent to the President and Mcc-President of the 
United States and the members of the Cabinet, — to Major-Gencral George G. Meade, 
commanding the Army of the Potomac, and, through him. to the officers and privates 
of that army which had fonght so valiantly, and gained such a memorable ^ictory on 
the Gettysburg battle-field, — and to Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott and Admiral 
Charles Stewart, the distinguished and time-honored representatives of the Army and 
Navy. Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, was present, and 
participated in tlie solemnities, delivering a brief Dedicatory Address. The occasion 
was further made memorable by the presence of large representations from the 
Army and Navy, of the Secretary of State of the United States, the Ministers of 
France and Italy, the French Admiral, and other distinguished foreigners, and several 
members of Congress ; also of the (Tovernors of a large number of the States in- 
terested, with their staff's, and, in some instances, large delegations, besides a vast 
concourse of citizens from all the States. 

Letters were received, in reply to the invitations addressed to them, from Major- 
General Meade, Lieutenant-General Scott, .\_dmiral Stewart, and the Secretary of the 
Treasury, lion. Salmon P. Chase, regretting their inability to be present, and expres- 
sive of their appi-oval of the project. 

One of the most sad and impressive features of the solemnities of the nineteenth 
of November, was the presence, in the procession and on the groiuids, of a delegation 
of about fifty wounded soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, from the York Hospital. 



•,>4 CONSECRATIOX OF THE 

'I'lu'-^c nu'U had Ihhmi woiiikUuI in tlic l)attle of Gottysbiirj;;. and wt'ir present in a 
dclea;ation to ])ay this just tril)ute to tlie remains of their fallen ronirades. These 
searred Aeterans came and dropped the tear of sorrow on the last resting-place of 
those eoinpanions h\ whose- sides they had so nobly fought, and. lingering over the 
graves afU-r the crowd had dispersed, slowly went away, strengthened in their faith in 
a nations gratitu(U\ 

I,r.TTi:i!S Ol' (iKN. MKADi;. (lEN. SCOIT. ADMIKU. STKWAHr. AM) S. V . (irVSE. 

IlKAD-Qc.vnTEUS Ahmy or TMK I'oTOMAC, Novembcr VMh, 1803. 
Davui Wn.LS, Esq., Acient fur the Oovernor of Pennsylvania, etc. : 

Sir, — 1 have the lioiior to :iekii(>\vletl|ie the invitation whieli, on hehalf of tlie Governor of I'enn- 
svlvania ami other States interested, yon extend to ni(> and the ollieers and men of my eoinmanrl, to 
be present on the nineteenth instant, at tlie consecration ol' tlie hnrial-phice of tliosc who fell on tlie 
tiekl of Gettyslnirg. 

It i5eeras almost unnecessary for me to say that none can have a deei)er interest in yonv good 
work than comrades in arms, honnd in close ties of long association and mntual confidence and snp- 
port with those to whom you are paying this last tribute of respect ; nor could the presence of any 
be more appropriate than that of those who stood side by side in the struggle, shared the peril, and 
the vacant places in whose ranks bear sad testimony to the loss they have sustained. But this army 
has duties to perform which will not admit of its being represented on the occasion ; and it only 
remains for me in its name, with deep and grateful feelings, to thank you and those you represent for 
your tender care of its heroic dead, and for your patriotic zeal, which, in honoring the martyr, gives a 
fresh incentive to all who do battle for the maintenance of the integrity of the government. 

I am. very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

GEOR&E G. MEADE, 

Major- General Commanding. 



New YoitK, November Idth, 18G;5. 
David AVills, Esq., Agent, etc. : 

Deaii Sir, — I have had the honor to I'cccive your invitation, on the part of the Governors of the 
loj-al States, to be present at the consecration of the Military Cemeteiy at Gettysburg, this day. 

Besides the determination, on account of infirmities, never again to jiarticipate in any public 
meeting or entertainment, I was too sick at the time to do more than write a short telegram in reply to 
His Excellency Governor Curtin. 

Having long lived with and participated in the hardships and dangers of our soldiers, I can never 

fail to honor 

" tlie brave, who sink to rest, 
By .-ill their country's wishes blest." 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 25 

None deserve this tribute from tlieir countrymen more tlian tliose wlio have fallen in defence of 
the Constitution and Union of the thirtj--four United States. 

I remain yours most respectfully, 

WINFIELD SCOTT. ' 



BoEDENTOWN, N. J., November 21st, 186.3. 

My dear Sir, — I regret extremely that, in cons(;queuce of the invitation you did me the honor 
to send me remaining for several days among the advertised letters in the Philadelphia post-ollice, I 
was not able to accept the same by appearing in person at the interesting consecration of the National 
Cemetery at Gettysburg, on the nineteenth of this month. 

Ou an occasion so solemn, awakening every patriotic emotion of the human heart, I cannot but 
deplore that I was not able to be present, to shed a tear over the remains of these gallant men, who 
gave 113- their lives to their God in defence of their country. 

Accept for yourself, my dear sir, and be pleased to present to the Committee, my thanks for 

j'our kind invitation, and believe me, with great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

CHARLES STEWART. 
To David Wills, Esq., Afjent, etc. 



Trf.ascrt Department, November IGtJi, 18G:3. 
Dear Sir, — It disappoints me greatly to find that imperative public duties make it impossible 
for me to be present at the consecration of the grounds selected as the last resting-place of the soldiers 
who fell in battle for their country at Gettysburg. It consoles me to think what tears of mingled 
grief and triumph will fall upon their graves, and what benedictions of the country saved by their 
heroism will make their memories sacred among men. 

Very respectfuHv yours, 

^ „, S. P. CHASE. 

David U ills, Esq., Agent for the Governors of tJie States. 

REMARKS BY THE HON. Wnj.IAM H. SEWARD, SECRETARY OF STATE. 

In the afternoou of the eighteenth, the President and the distingnished iiersonages 
accomijanying him anivcd at Gettysburg by a special train. In the course of the 
evening, the President and Secretary of State Avere serenaded, and the following 
remarks were made by :Mr. Seward, in resijonse to the call : — 

Fellow-Citizens : I am now sixty years old and upward ; I have been in public life practicallv 
forty years of that time, and yet this is the first time that ever any i)eople or community so near to 
-1 



2G CONSECRATION OF THE 

the border of Marvhuul \v:is foiliul williiii; to listen to 1113- voieo ; and llic reasDn was that I saw, forty 
Years ago, that slavery was opening before this people a graveyard that was to be filled with brothers 
fallinsi in nintnal political combat. I knew that the cause that was hurrying the Union into this 
dreadful strife was slavery ; and when during all the intervening period I elevated rny voice, it was to 
warn tlie people to remove that cause while they could by constitutional means, and so avert the 
catastrophe of civil war which has fallen upon the nation. I am thaidiful that you are willing to hear 
me at last. I thank my God that I believe this strife is going to end in the removal of that evil which 
ought to have been removed by deliberate councils and peaceful means (good). I thank my God for 
the hope that this is the last fratricidal war which will fall upon the country which is vouchsafed to 
\is bv Heaven, — the richest, the broadest, the most beautiful, the most magnificent and capable of a 
great destiny, that has ever been given to any part of the lumian race (ai)plause). And I thank Ilim 
for the hope that when that cause is removed, simply by the operation of abolishing it, as the origin 
and agent of the treason that is wiihout justification and without parallel, we shall thenceforth be 
united, be only one country, having only one hope, one ambition, and one destiny (applause). To- 
morrow, at least, we shall feel that we are not enemies, but th.it we are friends and brothers, that this 
Union is a reality, and we shall mourn together for the evil wrought by this rebellion. "We are now 
near the graves of the misguided, whom we have consigned to their last resting-place, with pity for 
their errors, and with the same heart full of grief with which we mourn over a brother by whose hand, 
raised in defence of his government, that misguided brother perished. 

When we part to-morrow night, let us remember that we owe it to our country and to mankind 
that this war shall have for its conclusion the establishing of the princii)le of democratic government, 
— the simple principle that whatever party, whatever portion of the comnuuiity. prevails by consti- 
tional suffrage in an election, that party is to be respected and maintained in power until it shall give 
place, on another trial and another verdict, to a different portion of the people. If you do not do this, 
you are drifting at once and irresistibly to the very verge of universal, cheerless, and hoi)eless anarchy. 
But with that principle this goverment of ours — the purest, the best, the wisest, and the happiest in 
the world — uuist be, and, so far as we are concerned, practically will be, immortal (cheers). Fellow- 
citizens, good night. 

The military present at \\\v exercises 011 the nineteenth of November, Avere under 
the command of Major-Geueral Conch. 

The prayer of consecration was made by the Ke^ . Dr. Stockton. 



SOLDIERS' NATI0NA2. CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 27 



ADDRESS OF THE HONORABLE EDWARD EVERETT. 



Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing 
from the labors of the waning year, the might}' Alleghanies dimly towering before 
us, the graves of oiu- brethren beneath our feet, it is ^vith hesitation that I raise my 
poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Xatitre. But the duty to which 
you have called me must be performed : — grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and 
your sympathy. 

It was appointed by law in Athens, that the obsequies of the citizens who fell in 
battle should be performed at the public expense, and in the most honorable manner. 
Their bones were carefully gathered up from the funeral pyre, where their bodies 
were consumed, and brought home to the cit}'. There, for three days before the 
intei-ment, they lay instate, beneath tents of honor, to receive the votuig offeiings of 
friends and relatives, — flowers, weapons, precious ornaments, painted vases (wonders 
of art, which after two thousand years adorn the museums of modern Europe), — the 
last tributes of surviving affection. Ten coffins of funereal cypress received the 
honorable deposit, one for each of the ti-ibes of the city, and an eleventh in memory 
of the unrecognized, but not therefore unhonored, dead, and of those whose remains 
could not be recovered. On the fourth day the mour-nful procession was formed : 
mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, led the way, and to them it was permitted by the 
simplicity of ancient manners to utter aloud their lamentations for the beloved and 
the lost ; the male relatives and friends of the deceased followed ; citizens and 
strangers closed the train. Thus marshalled, they moved to the place of intennent 
in that famous Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of Athens, which had been 
adorned by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, with walks and fountains and columns, — 
whose groves were filled with altars, shr-incs, and temples. — whose gardens were kept 
for ever green by the streams from the neighboring hills, and shaded with the trees 



•28 COXSECBATTOX OF THE 

sacred to Minerva and coeval with the foundation of tlie city, — whose circuit enclosed 

" tlie olive grove of Academe, 
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird 
Trilled his thick-warbled note the summer long," — 

whoso ])athwavs yleanuHl w ith the monuments of the ilhistrious dead, the work of the 
most consunnnate masters that ever ii;a\e life to nuirble. There, beneath the over- 
arching ])hine-trees, upon a lofty stage erected for the ]uu'iiose. it was ordained that a 
funeral oration should be pronoiuiced by some citizen of Athens, in the presence of 
the assembled midtitude. 

Such were the tokens of res])ect re([uired to be paid at Athens to tlu' memory of 
those who had fallen in the cause of their country. For those alone who fell at 
Marathon a peculiar honor was reserved. As the battle fought upon that immortal 
field was distinguished from all others in Grecian history for its influence over the 
fortunes of Hellas, — as it depended upon the event of that day whetluM' (i recce 
should live, a glorv and a light to all coming time, or should expire, like the meteor 
of a moment ; so the honors awarded to its martyr-heroes were such as were be- 
stowed bv Athens on no other occasion. They alone of all her sons were entombed 
upon the spot which tlu-v had forever rendered famous. Their names Avere inscribed 
u])on ten pillars erected upon the monumental tumulus Avliicli covered their ashes 
(where, after six hundred years, they Avere read by the traveller Pausanias), and 
although the cohmuis, beneath the hand of time and barbaric violence. Inne long 
since disappeared, the venerable mound still marks the spot where they fought and 
fell,— 

" That battle-field where Persia's victim-horde 
First bowed beneatli the brunt of Hellas' sword." 

And shall 1. fellow-citizens, who, after an interval of twenty-three centuries, a 
youthful pilgrim from the world unknown to ancient Greece, haA(> wandered over that 
illustrious plain, rciidy to ])ut otl' the shoes from off my feet, as one that stands on holy 
ground, — who have gazed with respectful emotion on the moiuid Avhicli still protects 
the dust of those who rolled back the tide of Persian invasion, and rescued the land 
of po])ular liberty, of letters, and of arts, from the ruthless foe, — stand unmoved 
over the graves of oin- dear brethren, who so latel) . on three of those all-im])ortant 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 29 

days which decide a nation's history, — days on whose issue it depended whether this 
august republican Union, founded by some of the wisest statesmen that ever Hved, 
cemented with the blood of some of the purest patriots that ever died, should perish 
or endure, — rolled back the tide of an invasion, not less unprovoked, not less ruth- 
less, than that which came to ])lant the dark banner of ^Vsiatic despotism and slavery 
on the free soil of Greece I Heaven forbid ! And could I prove so insensible to 
every prompting of patriotic duty and affection, not only would vou, fellow-citizens, ' 
gathered many of you from distant States, who ha^•e come to take part in these pious 
offices of gratitude, — you, respected fathers, brethren, matrons, sisters, who surround 
me, — cry out for shame, but the forms of brave and patriotic men Avho fill these 
honored graces would hea^e with indignation beneath the sod. 

We have assembled, friends, fellow-citizens, at the invitation of the Executive of 
the great central State of Pennsylvania, seconded by the Governors of seventeen other 
loyal States of the Union, to pay the last tribute of respect to the brave men, who, 
in the hard-fought battles of the first, second, and third days of July last, laid down 
their lives for the country on these hill-sides and the i)lains before us, and whose 
remains have been gathered into the Cemetery which we consecrate this day. As my 
eye ranges over the fields whose sods were so lately moistened by the blood of gallant 
and loyal men, I see, as never before, how truly it was said of old that it is sweet and 
becoming to die for one's country. I feel, as never before, how justly, from the dawn 
of history to the present time, men have paid the homage of their gratitude and 
admiration to the memory of those who nobly sacrifice their lives that their fellow- 
men may live in safety and m honor. And if this tribute were ever due, Avhen, to 
whom, could it be more justly jiaid than to those Avhose last resting-place we this day 
commend to the blessing of Hea\ en and of men \ 

For consider, my friends, Avhat would have been the consequences to the country, 
to yourselves, and to all you hold dear, if those who fjileep beneath our feet, and their 
gallant comrades who survive to serve their country on other fields of danger, had 
failed in their duty on those memorable days. Consider Avhat, at this moment, would 
be the condition of the United States, if that noble Army of the Potomac, instead of 
gallantly and for the second time beating back the tide of invasion from Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, had been itself driven from these well-contested heights, thrown back 
in confusion on Baltimore, or trampled down, discomfited, scattered to the four winds. 
What, in that sad event, would not have been the fate of the Monumental City, of 



:j() COySECNATIOX OF THE 

lliirrisbuvii;. of Philadclpliia. of \\asliiniit<)ii. the capitol of the ruion, eac-li and every 
one of which wouhl liave hiin at the ineioy of the enemy, accordingly as it might 
lia\e pleased him, spnned bv ])assion. Hushed witli victory, and confident of continued 
success, to (hrect his course '. 

For this we must bear in mind, — it is one of the great lessons of the war, indeed 
of every Avar, that it is impossible for a people without military organization, inhabit- 
ing the cities, towns and villages of an open country, including of course tlic natural 
])roportion of non-cond)atants of cither sex and of every age, to withstand the inroad 
of a veteran army. What defence can be made by the inhabitants of villages mostly 
built of wood, of cities unprotectt-d by walls, nay. by a population of men, however 
high-toned and resolute, whose aged ])arents demand their care, whose wives and 
children are clustering about tliem. against the cliarge of the war-liorse whose neck 
is clothed witli thunder, — against flung artillery and batteries of rifled cannon planted 
on CAcry commanding eminence, — against the onset of trained veterans led by skilful 
chiefs ? No, my friends, army must be met by army, battery by battery, sc^uadron by 
scpiadron ; and the shock of organized thousands must be encountered by the firm 
breasts and valiant arms of other thousands, as well organized and as skilfidly led. 
It is no reproach, therefore, to the unarmed population of the country to say, that we 
owe it to the brave men who slee]) in their beds of honor before us, and to their 
irallant surviving associates, not merelv tlu^t vour fertile fields, mv friends of Pennsvl- 
vania and Maryland, were redeemed from the presence of the invader, but that \our 
beautiful capitals were not given up to threatened plunder, perhaps laid in ashes, 
AVashington seized l)y the enemy, and a l)low struck at the heart of the nation. 

AVho tliat bears me has forgotten the thrill of joy that ran through the country 
on the Fourth of July, — auspicious day for the glorious tidings, and rendered still 
more so bv the simultaneous fall of A'icksburg. — when the telegi-aph flaslunl through 
the land the assurance from the President of the United States that the Army of the 
I'otomac, under General Aleade, had again smitten the invader I Sure I am, that, 
with the ascriptions of praise that rose to Heaven from twenty millions of freemen, 
\\ itli the acknowledgments tliat breathed from patriotic lips throughout the length 
and l)rea{lth of America, to the surviving officers and men who had rendered the 
countrv this inestimable service, there beat in every loyal bosom a throb of tender 
and sorrowful gratitude to tlu> martyrs wlio had fallen on the sternly contested field. 
Let a nation's fervent thanks make some amends for the toils and sufferings of those 
who survive. "Would that the heartfelt tril)ute coidd ])enetrate these honored grave.s ! 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 31 

In order that we may comprehend, to their full extent, our obligations to the 
martvrs and surviving heroes of the Army of the Potomac, let us contemplate for a 
few moments the train of events, which culminated in the battles of the first days of 
Julv. Of this stupendous rebellion, planned, as its originators boast, more than thirty 
years ago, matured and prepared for diuing an entire generation, finally commenced 
because for the first time since the adoption of the Constitution, an election of Presi- 
dent had been effected without the votes of the South (which retained, however, the 
control of the two other branches of the government), the occupation of the national 
cajjital, with the seizure of the public archives and of the treaties with foreign 
powers, was an essential feature. This was in substance, within my personal know- 
ledge, admitted, in the winter of 1860-61. bv one of the most influential leaders of 
the rebeUion ; and it was fondly thought that this object could be effected by a bold 
and sudden movement on the fourth of March, 1861. There is abundant proof, also, 
that a darker project was contemplated, if not by the responsible chiefs of the re- 
bellion, yet by nameless ruffians, willing to jilay a subsidiary and murderous part in 
the treasonable drama. It was accordingly maintained by the Rebel emissaries in 
England, in the circles to which they found access, that the new American Minister 
ought not, Avhen he arrived, to be received as the envoy of the United States, inas- 
much as before that time Washington would be captured, and the capital of the 
nation and the archives and muniments of the government would be in the possession 
of the Confederates. In full accordance also with this threat, it was declared by the 
Rebel Secretary of "War, at [Montgomery, in the presence of his Chief and of his 
colleagues, and of five thousand hearers, while the tidings of the assault on Sumter 
were travelling over the wkes on that fatal twelfth of April, 1861. that before the 
end of May " the flag which then flaunted the breeze," as he expressed it, " would 
float over the dome of the Capitol at AVashiugton."' 

At the time this threat was made, the rebellion Avas confined to the cotton- 
growing States, and it was well understood by them, that the only hope of dialing 
anv of the other slave-holding States into the conspii-acy was in bringing about a 
conflict of arms, and " fuing the heart of the South " by the effusion of blood. This 
Avas declared by the Charleston press to be the object for which Sumter was to be 
assaulted ; and the emissaries sent from Richmond, to urge on the unhallowed work, 
gave the promise, that, with the flrst drop of blood that should be shed, "S'irgioia 
would place herself b\- the side of South Carolina. 



:3-2 COXSECBATfOX OF THE 

In piirsuaucc of this oiii^iiial plan oi' tlu- leaders of the ivIx'Uion. tlu' captuiT of 
AYashington ha.s been continualh liiid in \ icw. not nuvirly for the sake of its pnblic 
buildings, as the capital of the Confederacy, but as the necessary preliminary to the 
absorption of the Border States, and for the moral effect in tlu> eyes of Europe of 
possessing the metropolis of the I'nion. 

I allude to these facts, not perhaps enoiagh borne in mind, as a sufficient refuta- 
tion of the pretence on the part of the Rebels, that the war is one of self-defence, 
Avaued for the right of sclf-t'overnmeut. It is in vealitv a war originally levied bv 
ambitious men m the cotton-growing States, for the purpose of drawing the slaA'e- 
holding Border States into the \ortex of the conspiracy, first by sympathy. — which 
in the case of Southeastern Virginia, North Carolina, part of Tennessee, and Ar- 
kansas, succeeded. — and then by force, and for the ])nrpose of std)jugatiug jNlaryland, 
Western \'irginia. Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, and ^lissouri ; and it is a most 
extraordinary fact, considering the clamors of the Rebel chiefs on the subject of 
invasion, that not a soldier of the United States has entered the States last named, 
except to defend their I'nion-loving inhabitants from the armies and guerillas of tlie 
Rebels. 

In conformity with these designs on the city of ^^'ashington, and notw ithstanding 
the disastrous results of the invasion of 1862, it was determined by the Rebel govern- 
ment last summer to resume the offensive in that direction. Unable to force the 
passage of the Rappahannock where General Hooker, notwithstanding the re\ ersc at 
Chancellorsville in Alay, was strongly posted, the Confederate general resorted to 
strategy, lie had two objects in view. The first was. by a v:\\nd movement north- 
ward, and bv manceuvring with a portion of his army on the east side of the Blue 
Ridge, to tempt Hooker from his base of opei-ations, thus leading him to iniCo\ er the 
approaches to Washington, to throw it open to a raid by Stuart's cavalry, and to 
enable JiCe, himself to cross the Potomac in the neighboihood of PoolesAille and 
thus fall upon the capital. This plan of operation w^as wholly frustrated. The 
design of the Rebel general was promi)tly discovered by General Hooker, and. moving 
with great rapidity from Fredericksburg, he ])reser\('d unbroken the inner Hue. and 
stationed the various corps of his army at all the jioints ])rotecting the ap])i()acli to 
Washington, from ('i'ntre\ ille up to Leesburg. I'rom this vantage-ground the Uebel 
general in vain attempted to draw him. in th{> mean time, by the vigorous opera- 
tions of Pleasanton's cavalry, the cavalry of Stuart, though greatly su]ierior in 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 33 

numbers, was so crippled as to be disabled from performing the part assigned it in 
the campaign. In this manner General Lee's first object, namely, -the defeat of 
Hooker's army on the south of the Potomac and a direct march on Washington, was 
baffled. 

The second part of the Confederate plan, which is supposed to have been under- 
taken in opposition to the views of General Lee, was to turn the demonstration 
northward into a real invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, in the hope, that, in 
this way, General Hooker would be drawn to a distance from the capital, and that 
some opportunity Avould occur of taking him at disadvantage, and, after defeating his 
army, of making a descent upon Baltimore and Washington. This part of General 
Lee's plan, which was substantially the repetition of that of 186'i, was not less 
signally defeated, with what honor to the arms of the Union the heights on which we 
are this day assembled will forever attest. 

Much time had been uselessly consumed by the Rebel general in his unavailing 
attempts to out-mamruvre General Hooker. Although General Lee broke up from 
Fredericksburg on the third of June, it was not till tlie twenty-fourth that the main 
body of his army entered Maryland. Instead of crossing the Potomac, as he had 
intended, east of the Blue Kidge, he was compelled to do it at Shepherdstown and 
Williamsport, thus materially deranging his entire plan of campaign north of the 
river. Stuart, who had been sent with his cavalry to the east of the Blue Ridge, to 
guard the passes of the mountains, to mask the movements of Lee, and to harass the 
Union general in crossing the river, having been very severely handled by Pleasanton 
at Beverly Ford, Aldie, and Upperville, instead of being able to retard General 
Hooker's advance, was driven himself away from his connection with the army of Lee, 
and cut off for a fortnight from all communication with it, — a circumstance to which 
General Lee, in his report, alludes more than once, with ca ident displeasure. Let us 
now rapidly glance at the incidents of the eventful campaign. 

A detachment from Ewelfs corps, under Jenkins, had penetrated, on the fifteenth 
of June, as far as Chambersburg. This movement Avas intended at fh'st merely as a 
demonstration, and as a marauding expedition for supplies. It had, however, the 
salutary effect of alarming the country ; and vigorous preparations were made, not 
only by the General Government, but here in Pennsyhania and in the sister States, 
to repel the inroad. After two days passed at Chambersburg, Jenkins, anxious for 
his communications with Ewell, fell back with his plunder to Hagerstown. Here he 
5 



34 CONSECRATION OF THE 

remained for several days, and then. havin<; swept the recesses of tlie Cnniberland 
valley, eanie down upon tlu> eastern fiank of tlie South Mountain, and pushed his 
marauding' ])arties as far as \Vaynesl)oro. On tlie t\\enty-sec()nd the remainder of 
Eweirs corjjs crossed tlie river and moved nj) the valley. They were followed on the 
twenty-fourth l)y Longstreet and Hill, who crossed at AMlliamsport and Shepherds- 
town, and. jinshing np the valley, encamped at Chambersburg on the twenty-seventh. 
In this way the whole llebel army, estimated at !)().()()() infantry, upwards of 10. ()()() 
cavalry, and 4,000 or 5,000 artillery, making u total of 10.), 000 of all arms, was con- 
centrated in Pennsylvania. 

I'p to this time no report of Hooker's mo\ements had been receiAcd by (ieneral 
I.ee, who, having been deprived of his cavalry, had no means of obtaining informa- 
tion. Rightly judging, however, that no time would be lost l)y the Union army in 
the pursuit, in order to detain it on the eastern side of the mountains in Maryland 
and Pennsylvania, and thus ])reserve his communications by the way of ^^'illiamsport, 
he had, before his own arri\al at Charabersburg, directed Ewell to send detachments 
from his corps to Carlisle and York. The latter detachment, under Early, passed 
through this place on the twenty-sixth of June. You need not. fellow-citizens of 
Gettysburg, that I should recall to you those moments of alarm and distress, ])re- 
cursors as they were of the more trying scenes which were so soon to follow. 

As soon as General Hooker perceived that the advance of the Confederates into 
the Cumberland valley Avas not a mere feint to draw him away from Washington, he 
moved rapidly in pursuit. Attempts, as we have seen, were made to harass and 
retard his passage across the Potomac. These attempts were not only altogether 
unsuccessful, but were so unskillfully made as to jilace the entire Federal army 
between the cavalry of Stuart and the army of Lee. AVhile the latter was massed in 
the Cumberland valley, Stuart was east of the mountains, with Hooker's army be- 
tween, and Gregg's Cavalry in close inirsuit. Stuart was accordingly compelled to 
force, a march northward, which was destitute of strategical character, and which 
deprived his chief of all means of obtaining intelligence. 

Not a moment had been lost by General Hooker in the imrsuit of Jxx\ The 
day after the Rebel army entered Maryland, the Union army crossed the Potomac at 
Edward's Ferry, and by the twenty-eighth of .huie lay between Harper's Ferry and 
Frederick. The force of the (>nemy on that day was partly at Chambersburg, and 
partlv moving on the Cashtowii road in tlie direction of (iettysburg. while the 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 35 

detachments from Ewell's corps, of which mention has been made, had reached the 
Susquehannah opposite Harrisburg and Columbia. That a great battle must soon be 
fought, no one could doubt ; but in the apparent and perhaps real absence of plan on 
the part of Lee, it was impossible to foretell the precise scene of the encounter. 
AYherever fought, consequences the most momentous hung upon the result. 

In this critical and anxious state of affairs. General Hooker was relieved, and 
General Meade was summoned to the chief command of the army. It appears to my 
unmilitary judgment to reflect the highest credit upon him, upon his predecessor, and 
upon the corps commanders of the Army of the Potomac, that a change could take 
place in the chief command of so large a force on the e^e of a general battle, — the 
various corps necessarily moving on lines somewhat divergent, and all in ignorance of 
the enemy's intended point of concentration, — and that not an hour's hesitation should 
ensue in the advance of any portion of the entire army. 

Having assumed the chief command on the twenty-eighth. General Meade 
directed his left wing, under Reynolds, upon Emmittsburg and his right upon New 
Windsor, leaving General French with 11,000 men to protect the Baltimore and Ohio 
liailroad, and convoy the public property from Harper's Ferry to Washington. 
Buford's cavalry was then at this place, and Kilpatrick's at Hanover, where he 
encountered and defeated the rear of Stuart's cavalry, who was roving the countrv in 
search of the main army of Lee. On the Rebel side. Hill had reached Fayetteville 
on the Cashtown road on the twenty-eighth, and was followed on the same road by 
Longstreet on the twenty-ninth. The eastern side of the mountain, as seen from 
Gettysburg, was lighted up at night by the camp-fu-es of the enemy's advance, and the 
country swarmed with his foraging parties. It was now too evident to be questioned, 
that the thunder-cloud, so long gathering blackness, would soon burst on some part 
of the devoted vicinity of Gettysburg. 

The thirtieth of Jiuie was a day of important preparation. At half-past eleven 
o'clock in the morning. General Buford passed through Gettysburg, upon a recon- 
noissance in force, with his cavalry, upon the Chambersburg road. The information 
obtamed by him was immediately communicated to General Reynolds, who was, in 
consequence, directed to occupy Gettysburg. That gallant officer accordingly, with 
the First Corps, marched from Emmittsburg to within six or seven niilcs of this place, 
and encamped on the right bank of Marsh's Creek. Our right wing, meantime, was 
moved to Manchester. On the same day the corps of Hill and Longstreet were 



:5(i CONSECRATION OF THE 

piisliod still faithcr Ibiward on the ('li;uul)ersl)urg road, and distribntrd in the vicinity 
of Marsh's Creek, \vhile a reconnoissance was made by the Confederate General 
Pettigrew up to a very short distanee from this place. Thus at nightfall on the 
thirtieth of Jviue the greater part of tlie Kebel fcnre was concentrated in the imme- 
diate vicinity of two corps of the I nion army, the former refreshed \i\ two days 
passed in comparative repose and deliberate preparation for the enconnter. the latter 
separated l)v a marcli of one or two days from their supporting corps, and doubtful at 
what ])recise point they were to expect an attack. 

And now the momentous day, a day to be forever remembered in the annals of 
the countrv, arrived. Early in the morning on the first of July the conflict began. 
I need not say that it would be impossible for me to comprise, within the limits of the 
hour, such a narrative as would do anything like full justice to the all-important 
events of these three great days, or to the merit of the brave officers and men of every 
rank, of every arm of the service, and of every loyal State, who bore their part in the 
tremendous struggle, — alike those who nobly sacrificed their lives for their country, 
and those who survive, many of them scarred with honorable wounds, the objects of 
our admiration and gratitude. The astonishingly minute, accurate, and graphic 
accounts contained in the journals of the day, prepared from personal observation by 
re])orters, who witnessed the scenes and often shared the perils which they describe, 
and the highly valuable " Notes" of Professor Jacobs, of the University in this place, 
to which I am greatly indebted, will abundantly supply the deficiency of my necessarily 
too condensed statement.* 

General Reynolds, on arri\ ing at Gettysburg in the morning of the first, found 
Buford with his cavalry warmly engaged with the enemy, wliom he held most gallantly 



* Resides the sources of information nicntioncil in the toxc. I have been kindly f.ivored with a nieraor.-vndum 
of llie operations of tlie three d.iys drawn up for me by dircetion of M.ijor-General Jleade (anticipating the pro- 
mulgation of liis oflieial report), by oik' of his aids, Colonel Theodore Lyman, from whom also I have received 
olhi'r important eomniunieations relative to the campaign. I liavc received very v.aliiable doenmenls relative to 
the battle from Majoi-(Jeneral Ilallecl;, Commander-in-Chief of the .army, and liave been nine!) assisted in 
drawing up the sketch of the campaign, by i\\o detailed reports, kindly transmitted to me in manuscript from 
tiie Adjutanl^enerars olliee, of the movements of every corps of the army, for cacli day, after the breaking up 
from Fredericksburg commenced. I have derived much assistance from Colonel John B. Bachelder's oral 
explanations of his beautiful and minute drawing (about to be engraved) of the field of the three days' struggle. 
AVith the inforniation.dcrived from these sources 1 liave compared the statements in General ].,ee's official 
report of the campaign, dated 31st July, 1803, a well-written article, piirjiorting to be .an account of the threi; 
days' batths in the liichmond EiK/uircr of the 2-Jtul of July, and the article on "The I?a*.lle of Gettysburg .and 
the Campaign of Pennsylvania," by an officer, apparently a colonel in the British army, in Bliirhwood's Mnyazitic 
for September. The value of the information contained in this last essay may be seen by comp.aring the remark 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 37 

in check. Hastening himself to the front, General Reynolds directed his men to be 
moved over the fields from the Emmittsburg road, in front of McMillans and Dr. 
Schmucker"s, nnder cover of the Seminary Ridge. "Without a moment's hesitation, 
he attacked the enemy, at the same time sending orders to the Eleventh Coi-ps 
(General Howard's) to advance as promptly as possible. General Reynolds imme- 
diately found himself engaged Avith a force which greatly outnumbered his own, and 
had scarcely made his dispositions for the action Avhen he fell, mortally wounded, at 
the head of his advance. The command of the Fiist Corps devolved on General 
Doubleday, and that of the tield on General Howard, who arrived at 11.30 with 
Schurz's and Barlow's divisions of the Eleventh Corps, the latter of whom recei\ ed a 
severe wound. Thus strengthened, the advantage of the battle was for some time on 
our side. The attacks of the Rebels were vigorously repulsed by Wadsworth's 
division of the First Corps, and a large number of prisoners, including General 
Archer, were captured. At length, however, the continued reinforcement of the 
Confederates from the main body in the neighborhood, and by the divisions of Rodes 
and Early, coming down by separate lines from Heidlersberg and taking post on our 
extreme right, turned the fortunes of the day. Our army, after contesting the ground 
for five hours, was obhged to yield to the enemy, whose force outnumbered them tAvo 
to one ; and toward the close of the afternoon General Howard deemed it prudent to 
withdraw the two corps to the heights where we are now assembled. The greater 
part of the Fii'st Corps passed through the outskirts of the town, and reached the 
hill without serious loss or molestation. The Eleventh Corps and portions of 
the First, not being aware that the enemy had abeady entered the town from the 
north, attempted to force their way through Washington and Baltimore streets, 



under (late 27lh of June, lliat "private property is to be riKidly protected," with the statement in the next sentence 
Imt one, " that all the cattle and farm-horses having been seized by Ewell, farm labor had come to a complete 
stand-still." He also, under date of 4th July, speaks of Lee's retreat being encumbered hy ''T.v.eWs immense 
train of plunder." This writer informs lis tliat, on the evening of the 4th of July, he heard " reports coming in 
from tlie difl'ercnt Generals that the enemy [Meade's array] was relirin;;. and h.ad been doing so .all day long." 
At a consultation at head-quarters on the sixth, between Generals Lee. Longstreet, Hill, and Wilcox, this writer 
was told by some one, whose name he prudently leaves in blank, tliat the army had no intention at present of 
retreating for good, and that some of the enemy's despatches had been intercepted, in whicli the following words 
occur: " The noble, but unfortunate Array of the Potomac has again been obliged to retreat before superior 
numbers!" He does not appear to be aware that, in recording these wretched expedients, resorted to in order 
to keep up the spirits of Lee's army, he furnishes the most complete refut.ation of his own account of its good 
condition. I much regret that Geneial Me.ade's official report was not published in season to en.able me to take 
full advantage of it, in prepanng the brief sketch of the baltles of the three days contained in this Address. 
It reached mc but the morning before it was sent to the press. 



38 CONSECRATION OF THE 

whicli, in the crowd and confusion of the scene, they did witli a lieav} loss in 
prisoners. 

General Howard was not nnijrcparcd for this turn in tlu^ fortunes of the day. 
He had in tlu" course of th(> morning caused C'emetery Hill to he occupied hy 
General Steinwehr, with the second division of the Eleventh Corjis. Ahout the 
time of the withdrawal of our troojjs to the hill, General Hancock arrived, having 
been sent by General ^Iead(\ on hearing of the death of Reynolds, to assume the 
command of the field till he himself could reach the front. In conjunction witli 
(ieneral Howard, General Hancock immediately proceeded to ])ost troops and to 
repel an attack on our right flank. 'J'his attack was feebly made and promptly 
repulsed. At nightfall, our troops on the liill. w^ho had so gallantly sustained them- 
selves during the toil and peril of the day. were cheered by tin- arrival of General 
Slocum with the Twelfth Corps, and of General Sickles with a part of the Third. 

Such was the fortune of the first day, .commencing with decided success to our 
arms, followed by a check, but ending in the occupation of this all-important position. 
To you, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg, I need not attempt to portray the anxieties of 
the ensuing night. Witnessing as you had done with sorrow the withdrawal of om- 
army through your streets, wdth a considerable loss of prisoners, — mourning as 
you did over the brave men who had fallen, — shocked with the wide-spread desola- 
tion around you, of which the wanton burning of the Harman House had given the 
signal, — ignorant of the near approach of General Meade, you passed the weary 
hours of the night in painful expectation. 

Long before the dawn of the second of July, the new Commander-in-Chief had 
reached the ever-memorable field of service and glory. Having received intelligence of 
the events in jnogress, and informed by the reports of Generals Hancock and Howard 
of the favorable character of the position, he determined to give battle to the enemy 
at this point. He accordingly directed the remaining corps of the army to concentrate 
at Gettysburg with all possible expedition, and breaking up his head quarters at 
Taneytown at 10 v. m., he arrived at the front at one o'clock in the morning of the 
second of July. Few were the moments given to slee]), during the rapid watches of 
that brief midsummer's night, by officers or men, though half of our troops w^ere 
exhausted by the conflict of the day. and the residue wearied by X\\v forced marches 
which had l)rought them to the rescue. The full moon, veiled by thin clouds, shone 
down that night on a strangely unwonted scene. The silence of the grave-yard w as 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 39 

broken by the heavy tramp of armed men, by the neigh of the war-horse, the harsh 
rattle of the Avheels of artillery hurrying to their stations, and all the indescribable 
tumult of preparation. The various corps of the army, as they arrived, were moved 
to their positions, on the spot where we are assembled, and the ridges that extend 
southeast and southwest ; batteries were planted, and breastworks thrown up. The 
Second and Fifth Corps, with the rest of the Third, had reached the ground by seven 
o'clock, A. M. ; but it was not till two o'clock in the afternoon that Sedgwick arrived 
with the Sixth Corps. He had marched thirty-four miles siuce nine o'clock on the 
evening before. It was only on his arrival that the Union army approached an 
equality of numbers Avith that of the Rebels, who were posted upon the opposite and 
parallel ridge, distant from a mile to a mile and a half, overlapping our position on 
either wing, and probably exceeding by ten thousand the army of General Meade.* 

And here I cannot but remark on the providential inaction of the Eebel army. 
Had the contest been renewed by it at dayhght on the second of July, with the First 
and Eleventh Corps exhausted by the battle aud the retreat, the Third and Twelfth 
weary from theu- forced march, and the Second, Fifth and Sixth not yet arrived, 
nothing but a miracle could have saved the army from a great disaster. Instead of 
this, the day dawned, the sun rose, the cool hours of the morning passed, the forenoon 
and a considerable part of the afternoon wore away, without the slightest aggressive 
movement on the part of the enemy. Thus time was given for half of our forces to 
arrive and take their place in the lines, while the rest of the army enjoyed a much- 
needed half-day's repose. 

At length, between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, the work of death 
began. A signal-gun from the hostile batteries was followed by a tremendous can- 
nonade along the Rebel lines, and this by a heavy advance of infantry, brigade after 
brigade, commencing on the enemy's right against the left of our army, and so onward 
to the left centre. A forward movement of General Sickles, to gain a commanding 
position from which to repel the Rebel attack drew upon him a destructive fire from 
the enemy's batteries, and a furious assault from Longstreet's and Hill's advancing 



* In the Address as originally prepiretl, judging from tlie best sources of information tlien witliin my reach, 
I assumed tlie equality of the two armies on the second and third of July. Subsequent inquiry has led me to 
think that 1 underrated somewhat the strength of Lee's foree at Gettysburg, and I have corrected the text 
accordingly. General Halleck. however, in his official, report .accomp.anying the President's messages, states the 
armies to have been equal. 



40 CONSECnATTOX OF THE 

troops. After a brave resistance on the part of his corps, he was forced back, himself 
falling severely wounded. This was tlic critical inoiucnt of tlie second dav ; l)ut the 
Fifth and a part of the Sixth Corps, with portions of the T'irst and Second, were 
promptly brought to the snpport of the Third. The struggle was tierce and inm- 
derous, but by sunset our success was decisive, and the enemy was driven hack in 
confusion. The most important service was rendered toward the close of the day, iu 
the memorable advance between Hound Top and Little Round Top, by General 
Crawford's division of the Fifth Corps, consisting of two brigades of the Pennsylvania 
lleserves, of which one company was from this town and neighbourhood. The Rebel 
force was driven back with great loss in killed and prisoners. At eight o'clock iu the 
evening a desperate attempt was made by the enemy to storm the position of the 
Eleventh Corps on Cemetery Hill ; but here, too, after a terrible contlict, lie was 
repulsed w\X\\ immense loss. Ewell, on our extreme right, which had been weakened 
by \\w \\ itlidrawal of the troops sent over to support our left, had succeeded in gain- 
ing a foothold within a portion of our lines, near Spangler's Spring. This was the only 
advantage obtained by the Rebels to compensate them for th(> disasters of the day, 
and of this, as we shall see, they were soon deprived. 

Such was the result of the second act of this eventful drama. — a day hard fought 
and at one moment anxious, but. with the exception of the slight reverse just named, 
cro^^•ned with dearly earned but uniform success to our arms, auspicious of a glorious 
termination of the final struggle. On these good omens the night fell. 

In the course of the night. General Geary returned to his position on the right, 
from which he had hastened the day before to strengthen the Third Corps, lie 
immediatelv engaged the enemy, and, after a sharp and decisive action, drove them 
out of our lines, recovering the ground which had been lost on the preceding day. 
A spirited contest was kept up all the morning on this part of the line ; but General 
Geary, reinforced by Wheatons brigade of the Sixth Corjis, maintained his position, 
and inflicted very severe losses on the Rebels. 

Such was the cheering commencement of the third day's work, and w ith it ended 
all serious attempts of the enemy on our right. As on the preceding day, his efforts 
were now mainly directed against our left centre and left wing. From eleven till 
half-past one o'clock, all was still, — a solemn pause of preparation, as if botli armies 
were nerving themselves for the supreme eflbrt. At length the aw ful silence, more 
terrible than the wildest tumult of battle. Mas broken by the roar of two hundred and 
fifty pieces of artillery from tlie opposite ridges, joining in a caiuionade of unsur- 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 41 

passed violence, — the Eebel batteries along two-thirds of their line pouring their tire 
upon Cemetery Hill, and the centre and left wing of our army. Having attempted 
in this way for two hours, but without success, to shake the steadiness of our lines, 
the enemy rallied his forces for a last grand assault. Their attack was principally 
directed against the position of our Second Corps. Successive lines of Rebel infantry 
moved forward with equal spirit and steadiness from their cover on the wooded crest 
of Seminary Ilidge, crossing the intervening plain, and, sui)ported right and left by 
their choicest brigades, charged furiously up to our batteries. Our own brave troops 
of the Second Corps, supported by Doubleday's division and Stanuard's brigade of the 
First, received the shock with firmness ; the ground on both sides was Ion"- and 
fiercely contested, and was covered with the killed and the wounded ; the tide of 
battle flowed and ebbed across the plain, till, after " a determined and gallant 
struggle," as it is pronounced by General Lee, the Rebel advance, consisting of two- 
thirds of Hill's corps and the whole of Longs treet's, — including Pickett's division, the 
elite of his corps, which had not yet been under fire, and was now depended upon to 
decide the fortune of this last eventful day, — was driven back with prodigious 
slaughter, discomfited and broken. While these events were in progress at our left 
centre, the enemy was driven, with a considerable loss of prisoners, from a strouo- 
position on our extreme left, from which he was annoying our force on Little Round 
Top. In the terrific assault on our centre. Generals Hancock and Gibbon were 
wounded. In the Rebel army. Generals Armistead, Kemper, Pettigrew, and Trimble 
were wounded, the first named mortally, the latter also made prisoner. General 
Garnett was killed, and thirty-five hundred officers and men made prisoners. 

These were the expiring agonies of the three days' conflict, and with them the 
battle ceased. It was fought by the Union army Avith courage and skill, from the 
first cavalry skirmish on Wednesday morning to the fearful rout of the enemv on 
Friday afternoon, by every arm and every rank of the service, by oflficers and men, 
by cavalry, artillery and infantry. The superiority of numbers Avas with the enemv, 
who were led by the ablest commanders in their service ; and if the Union force had 
the advantage of a strong position, the Confederates had that of choosing time and 
place, the prestige of former victories over the Army of the Potomac, and of the 
success of the first day. Victory does not always fall to the lot of those who deserve 
it ; but that so decisive a triumph, under circumstances like these, was gained by our 
troops, I would ascribe, under Proridence, to the spirit of exalted patriotism that 
animated them, and a consciousness that they were fighting in a righteous cause. 



\-2 CONSECPATTOX OF THE 

All hopo of dofeatiii!; our aiiin. and sccuriiii;' what (ieiuMa! Leo calls "the 
A'ahiahlc results " of such au achicvciucut. liaAiug vanished, he thoui^ht only of rescuing 
from destruction the remains of his shattered forces. In killed, wounded, and missing, 
he had. as far as can he ascertaint'd. sntfcMcd a loss of ahout IH.OOO men. — rather 
more than a third of the army with which lie is supposed to have marched into Penn- 
sylvania. Perceiving that his only safety was in ra[)id retreat, he commenced with- 
drawing his troops at dayhreak on the fourth, throwing up ti(>ld-works in front of our 
left, which, assinning the api)earance of a new jjosition. were intended prohahly to 
protect the rear of his army in their retreat. That day — sad celehration of the 
Fonrth of July for an army of Americans — was ])assed hy him in hurrying otl' his 
trains. Bv nightfall, the main arnn was in full retreat on the C'ashtown and Fairfield 
roads, aiul it moved with such ])re(i])itati(m. that, short as the nights were, hy day- 
light tlu' following morning, notwithstanding a heavy rain, the rear-guard had left 
its position. 'I'he struggle" of the last two days resemhled in many resjiects the i)attle 
of AVaterloo ; and if. in the evening of the third day, Cieneral Meade, like the Duke 
of '\\'ellington, had had the assistance of a powerful auxiliary army to take u]) the 
])ursuit. the rout of the Kebels would havi" Ikh-u as complete as that of Napoleon. 

Owing to the circumstance just named, the intentions of the enemy were not 
apparent on the fourth. The monunit his retreat was discovered, the following 
morning, he Avas pursued hy our cavalry on the Cashton road, and through the 
Kmmittsburg and .Monterey passes, and hy Sedgwick's corps on the Fairfield road. 
His rear-guard was briskly attacked at Fairfield; a great uund)er of wagons and 
ambulances were captured in the ])asses of the mountains ; the country swarmed with 
his stragglers, and his wounded wcie literally emptied from the xeliicles containing 
them into the farm-houses on the road, (ieneral Lee, in his report, makes repeated 
mention of the Union prisoners whom he conveyed into A'iiginia, somewhat overstating 
their nimiber. lie states, also, that " such of his womided as were in a condition to 
be removed" were forwarded to A\'illiamsport. He does not mention that the 
number of his wounded not removed, and left to the Christian care of the victors, 
was 7,541), not one of whom failed of any attention which it was possil)le. inider the 
circumstances of the case, to afford them, not one of whom, certainly, has been put 
upon Lil)hv-])rison i'lnc. — lingering death by starvation. Heaven forbid, however, 
tliat we should claim any merit for the exercise of coinnion liumanit\. 

Under tin; protection of the mountain-ridge, whose narrow ])asses are easily held 



SOLDIERS- NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 43 

even by a retreating ai-my, General Lee reached Williamsport in safety, and took up 
a strong position opposite to that place. General Meade necessaiily pursued with 
the main army by a flank movement through Middletown, Turners Pass having been 
secured by General French. Passing thiough the South Mountain, the Union army 
came up with that of the Rebels- on the twelfth, and found it securely posted on the 
heights of Marsh Run. The position Avas reconnoitred, and preparations made for 
an attack on the thirteenth. The depth of the river, swollen by the recent rains, 
authorized the expectation that the enemy would be brought to a general engagement 
the following day. An advance was accordmgly made by General Meade on the 
mommg of the fourteenth ; but it was soon found that the Rebels had escaped in the 
night, with such haste that Ewell's corps forded the river, where the water was breast 
high. The cavalry, which had rendered the most important services during the three 
days, and in harassing the enemy's retreat, was now sent in pursuit, and captured two 
guns and a large number of prisoners. In an action which took place at Falling 
Waters, General Pettigrew was mortally wounded. General ^Meade, in further 
pursuit of the Rebels, crossed the Potomac at Berlin. Thus again coveiing the 
approaches to AVashington, he compelled the enemy to pass the Blue Ridge at one of 
the upper gaps ; and in about six weeks from the commencement of the campaign, 
General Lee found himself again on the south side of the Rappahannock, with the 
probable loss of about a thud part of his army. 

Such, most inadequately recounted, is the history of the ever-memorable three 
days, and of the events immediately preceding and following. It has been pretended 
in order to diminish the magnitude of this disaster to the Rebel cause, that it was 
merely the repulse of an attack on a strongly defended position. The tremendous 
losses on both sides are a sufficient answer to this misrepresentation, and attest the 
courage and obstinacy with which the three days' battle was waged. Few of the 
great conflicts of modern times have cost victors and vanquished so great a sacrifice. 
On the Union side, there fell, in the whole campaign, of generals killed, Reynolds, 
Weed, and Zook, and wounded. Barlow, Barnes, Buttei-field, Doubleday, Gibbon, 
Graham, Hancock, Sickles, and Warren ; while of officers below the rank of general, 
and men, there were 2,834 killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6,643 missing. On the 
Confederate side, there were killed on the field or mortally wounded. Generals 
Armistead, Barksdale, Garnett, Pender, Pettigrew, and Semmes ; and wounded, Heth, 
Hood, .Johnson, Kemper, Kimball, and Trimble. Of officers below the rank of 



44 CONSECRATION OF THE 

general, and nun. there were taken jjrisoners, including the wounded, 1:{.()",M. an 
amount ascertained otticially. Of the wounded in a condition to 1)(' renioxcd. ot" the 
killed and the nussing, the enemy has made no return. They are estimated from the 
best data which tlu- nature of the case admits, at ■i;3.()()(). General Meade also 
captured three cannon and forty-one standards; and ■J4,i)'IS small arms were collected 
<ni the battle field. 

I must leave to others, who can do it from ])ersonal obser\ation. to describe the 
mournful spectacle presented by these liill-sides and plains at the close of the terrible 
conflict. It was a saying of the Duke of A^'ellington, that ne.xt to a defeat, the 
saddest thing is a victory. 'J'lie horrors of the battle field, after the contest is over, 
the sights and sounds of wo{\ — let me throw a jiall over the scene, which no words 
can adequately depict to those who have not witnessed it. (ui which no one wlio has 
witnessed it, and who has a heart in his bosom, can bear to dwell. One drop of 
balm alone, one drop of heavcndy. life-giving balm, mingles in this bitter cu]) of 
misery. Scarcely has the cannon ceased to roar, when the brethren and sisters of 
Christian benevolence, ministers of compassion, angels of jiity, hasten to the field 
and the hospital, to moisten the parched tongue, to bind the ghastly wounds, to soothe 
the parting agonies alike of friend and foe, and to catch the last whispered messages 
of love from dying lips. " Carry this miniatuie back to my dear wife, but do not take 
it from my bosom till 1 am gone." " Tell my little sister not to grieve for me ; I am 
willing to die for my country." '■ Oh, that my mother were here ! " "When since 
Aaron stood between the living and the dead was there ever so gracious a ministry 
as this ? It has been said that it is characteristic of Americans to treat women with 
a deference not paid to them in any other country. I will not undertake to say 
whether this is so ; but I will say, that, since this terrible war has been Avaged, the 
women of the loyal States, if never before, have entitled themselves to our highest 
admiration and gratitude, — alike those who at home, often with fingers unused to the 
toil, often bowed beneath their own domestic cares, have performed an amount of 
dailv labor not exceeded by those who work for their daily bread, and those who, in 
the hospitals and the tents of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, hav(> rendered 
services which millions could not buy. Happily, the labor and the service are tiieir 
()\\n rc>\\ard. Thousands of matrons and thousands of maidens ha\e exjKn-ienced a 
deliifht in these honielv toils and services, compared with which the i)leasures of the 
ball-room and the oi)era-house are tame and unsatisfactory. This on earth is reward 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 45 

enough, but a richer is in store for them. Yes, brothers, sisters of charity, while you 
bind up the Avouuds of the poor sufferers, — the humblest, perhaps, that have shed 
their blood for the country, — forget not Who it is that will hereafter say to you, 
" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me."' 

And now, friends, !"ellow-citizens, as we stand among these honored graves, the 
momentous question presents itself, Which of the two parties to the war is respon- 
sible for all this suffermg, for this dreadful sacrifice of life, the lawful and consti- 
tutional government of the United States, or the ambitious men who have rebelled 
against it? I say "rebelled" against it, although Earl Russell, the British Secretary 
of State for Foreign Affairs, in his recent temperate and conciliatory speech in Scot- 
land, seems to intimate that no prejudice ought to attach to that Avord, inasmuch as 
our English forefathers rebelled against Charles I. and James II., and our American 
fathers rebelled against (Tcorge III. These certainly are venerable precedents, but 
they prove only tliat it is j\ist and proper to rebel against oppressive governments. 
They do not prove tliat it was just and proper for the son of James II. to rebel 
against George I., or his grandson Charles Edward to rebel against George II. ; nor, 
as it seems to me, ought these dynastic struggles, little better than family quarrels, to 
be compared with this monstrous conspiracy against the American Union. These 
precedents do not prove that it was just and proper for the "disappointed great men " of 
the cotton-growing States to rebel agamst " the most beneficent government of which 
history gives us any account," as the Vice-President of the Confederacy, in November, 
1860, charged them with doing. They do not create a presumption even in favor of 
the disloyal slaveholders of the South, who, living under a government of which Mr. 
Jefferson Davis, in the session of 1S6()-61, said that it was " the best government 
ever instituted by man, unexceptionally administered, and under which the people 
have been prosperous beyond comparison with any other people whose career has 
been recorded in history," rebelled against it because their aspiring politicians, him- 
self among the rest, were in danger of lo.sing their monopoly of its offices. What 
Avould have been thought by an impartial posterity of the American rebellion against 
George III., if the colonists had at all times been more than equally represented in 
parliament, and James Otis and Patrick Henry and ^^'a,shington and Franklin and the 
Adamses and Hancock and Jefferson, and men of their stamp, had for two generations 
enjoyed the confidence of the sovereign and admmistered the government of the 



4(i C0Xi>ECIiAT10X OF THE 

cnipiio ? W hilt would have boon thought of tl>o robollion against Charlos I., if 
Cronnvoll and tlio nu-u of his scliool liad boou the rosponsiblc advisers of that prinee 
from his accession to the throne, and then, on account of a partial change in the 
ministrv. had l)rought his head to the block, and involved the country in a desolating 
war, for the sake of dismembering it and establishing a now government south of the 
Trent? AVhat would have boon thought of the AN'higs of itiyS, if they had them- 
selves composed the cabinet of James 11., and been the advisers of the measures and 
the promoters of the policy w hicli drove him into exile ? The Puritans of 1 ()40 and 
the Whigs of 16S8 rebelled against arbitrary power in order to establish constitutional 
libertv. If tlun had risen against Charles and James because those monarchs 
favored e([ual rights, and in order themselves "for the first time in the history of the 
world" to establish an oligarchy "founded on the corner-stone of slavery," they 
would trulv have furnished a precedent for the Rebels of the South, but their cause 
would not have boon sustained by the olo(pience of Pym or of Somors. nor sealed 
with the blood of Hampden or Russoll. 

I call the war which the Confederates are waging against the Inion a •' rebel- 
lion." because it is one, and in grave matters it is best to call things by their right 
names. I speak of it as a crime, because the Constitution of the United JStates so 
regards it, and puts •• rebellion " on a par with •• invasion." The constitution and law 
not onlv of ]',ngland, but of every civilized country, regard tluMn in the same light ; 
or rather thev consider the rebel in arms as far worse than the alien enemy. To 
levy war against the United States is the constitutional definition of treason, and that 
crime is by everv civilized government regarded as the highest which citizen or 
subject can commit. Not content with the sanctions of human justice, of all the 
crimes against the law of the land it is singled out for its denunciations of religion. 
The litanies of every church in Christendom whoso ritual embraces that office, as far 
as I am aware, from the metropolitan cathedrals of Europe to the humblest missionary 
chapel in the islands of the sea, concur with the Church of England in imploring the 
Sovereign of the universe, by tlu- most awful adjurations which tho heart of man can 
conceive or his tongue utter, to deliver us from " sedition. \n\\\ conspiracy, and 
rebellion." And reason good ; for while a rebellion against tyranny, — a rebellion 
designed, after prostratmg arbitrary power, to establish free govornmont on tho basis 
of justice and truth. — is an enterprise on which good men and angels may look with 
complacency, an unprovoked rebellion of ambitious men against a beneficent 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 47 

government, for the pnrpose — the avowed purpose — of establishing, extending, and 
perpetuating any form of injustice and wrong, is an imitation on earth of that first 
foul revolt of " the Infernal Serpent,"' against which the Supreme ^lajcsty of hcav«n 
sent forth the armed myriads of his angels, and clothed the right arm of His Son 
with the three-bolted thunders of omnipotence. 

Lord Bacon, in " the true marshalling of the sovereign degrees of honor," 
assigns the first place to " the Couditores Irnperiorum, founders of States and Com- 
monwealths ; " and. truly, to build up from the discordant elements of our nature, 
the passions, the interests, and the opinions of the individual man. the rivalries of 
families, clan, and tribe, the influences of climate and geographical position, the 
accidents of peace and war accumulated for ages, — to build up from these oftentimes 
warring elements a well-compacted, prosperous, and powerful State, if it were to be 
accomplished l)y one effort or in one generation, would require a more than mortal 
skill. To contribute in some notable degree to this, the greatest work of man, bv 
wise and patriotic counsel in peace and loyal heroism in war, is as high as human 
merit can well rise, and far more than to any of those to whom Bacon assigns this 
highest place of honor, whose names can hardly be repeated without a wondering 
srade, — Romulus, Cyrus, Ctesar, Ottoman, Ismael, — is it due to our AVashington as 
the founder of the American Union. But if to achieve or help to achieve this 
greatest work of man's wisdom and virtue gives title to a place among the chief 
benefactors, rightful heii-s of the benedictions of mankind, by equal reason shall the 
bold, bad men who seek to undo the noble work, Eversores Lnperiorum, destroyers of 
States, who for base and selfish ends rebel against beneficent governments, seek to 
overturn wise constitutions, to lay powerful republican Unions at the foot of foreign 
thrones, to bring on civil and foreign war, anarchy at home, dictation abroad, desola- 
tion, ruin, — by equal reason, I say, yes, a thousandfold stronger, shall they inherit 
the execrations of the ages. 

But to hide the deformity of the crime under the cloak of that sophistry which 
strives to make the worst appear the better reason, we are told by the leaders of the 
Rebellion that in our complex system of government the separate States are 
" sovereigns," and that the central power is only an " agency " established by these 
sovereigns to manage certain little affairs, — such, forsooth, as Peace, AVar, Armv, 
Navy, Finance, Territory, and Relations A\itli the native tribes, — which they could 
not so conveniently administer themselves. It happens, unfortunately for this theory. 



4y CONSECliATION OF THE 

that tlic Fi'doial Constitution (wliicli lias l)ecn adopted by the people of every State 
of the I'nion as much as their own State constitutions have been adopted, and is 
declared to be paramount to them) nowhere recof^nizes the States as " sovereif^ns,'" — 
in fact, that, by their names, it docs not recognize them at all ; while the authority 
established by that instrument is recognized, in its text, not as an •■ agency," but as 
" the Government of the ITnited States." By that Constitution, moreover, which 
. purports in its preamble to be ordained and established by •• the People of the United 
States," it is expressly provided that " the members of the State legislatures, and :dl 
executi\e and judicial officers, sliall be bound by oath or affirmation to sui)])ort the 
Constitution." Now it is a common thing, under all governments, for an agent to be 
bound by oath to be faithful to his sovereign ; but I never heard before of sovereigns 
bemg bound by oath to be faithful to their agency. 

Certainly I do not deny that the separate States are clothed Avith sovereign 
powers for the administration of local affairs. It is one of the most l)eautiful 
features of our mixed system of government ; but it is equally true that, in adopting 
the Federal Constitution, the States abdicated, by express renunciation, all the most 
important functions of national sovereignity, and, by one comprehensive, self-denying 
clause, gave up all right to contravene the (.Constitution of the United States. 
vSpecificullv, and by enumeration, they renounced all the most imjiortant jirerogatives 
of independent States for peace and for war,— the right to keep troops or ships of 
war in time of peace, or to engage in war unless actually invaded ; to enter into 
compact with another State or a foreign power ; to lay any duty on tonnage, or any 
impost on exports or imports, without the consent of Congress ; to enter into any 
treaty, alliance, or confederation ; to grant letters of marque and reprisal, and to 
emit bills of credit, — while all these powers and many others are expressly vested in 
the General Government. To ascribe to political communities, thus limited in then- 
jurisdiction, — who cannot even establish a post-office on their own soil, — the character 
of independent sovereignty, and to reduce a national organization, clothed a\ ith all 
the transcendent powers of government, to the name and condition of an " agency " 
of the States, proves nothing but that the logic of secession is on a par with its 
loyalty and patriotism. 

Oh. but " the reserved rights ! " And what of the reserved rights \ The tenth 
amendment of the Constitution. su])posed to provide for " reserved rights," is con- 
stantly misciuoted. Hy tliat amendment. '• the powers not delegated to the United 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 49 

States by tli? Cjn^titutiou, nor pro'.iibite:! by it to tlic States, are reserved to the 
States respectively, or to the People." The •' powers " reserved iriiist of course be 
such as could have bccu, but were not delegated to the Uuited States, — could have 
been, but were not prohibited to the States ; but to speak of the right of an individual 
State to secede, as a power that could have been, though it was not delegated to the 
United Stales, is simple nonsense. 

But waiving this obvious absurdity, can it need a serious argument to prove that 
there can be no State right to enter into a new confederation reserved under a con- 
stitution Avhich expressly prohibits a State to " enter into any treaty, alliance or 
confederation," or any " agreement or compact with another State or a foreign 
power ? " To say that the State may, by enacting the })relimiuary farce of secession, 
acquii-e the right to do the prohibited things, — to say, for instance, that though the 
States, ill forming the Constitution, delegated to the United States and prohibited to 
themselves the power of declaring war, there was by implication reserved to each 
State the right of seceding and then declaring war ; that, though they expressly 
prohibited to the States and delegated to the United States the entire treaty-making 
power, they reserved by implication (for an express reservation is not pretended) to 
the individual States, to Florida, for instance, the right to secede, and then to make a 
treaty with Spain retroceding that Spanish colony, and thus surrendering to a foreign 
power the key to the Gulf of Mexico, — to maintain propositions like these, with 
whatever affected seriousness it is done, appears to me egregious trifling. 

Pardon me, my friends, for dwelling on these wretched sophistries. But it is 
these which conducted the armed hosts of rebellion to your doors on the terrible and 
glorious days of July, and which have brought upon the whole land the scourge of 
an aggressive and wicked war, — a war which can have no other termination com- 
patible with the permanent safety and welfare of the country but the complete 
destruction of the military power of the enemy. I have, on other occasions, 
attempted to show that to yield to his demands and acknowledge his independence, 
thus resolving the Union at once into two hostile governments, with a certainty of 
further disintegration, would annihilate the strength and the influence of the country 
as a member of the family of nations ; aff"ord to foreign powers the opportunity and 
the temptation for humiliating and disastrous interference in our affairs ; wrest from 
the Middle and Western States some of their great natural outlets to the sea and of 
their most important lines of internal communication ; deprive the commerce and 



50 CON^SECRATIOX OF THE 

iiavi>;;ition ot' the ((miiti} of two-tliinls of our soa-coiist aiul of \\\v fortresses which 
])rotoct it ; not oiilv so. but \\ouhl ('iial)lr racli iiuHvichial State, — some of them with 
a wliite poimlatioii e([".ial to a i^'ood-si/eil Nortlicni county. — or nitlicr the dominant 
])artv in each State, to cede its territory, its liarhors. its fortresses, the moutlis of its 
rixers. to anv f(n'eiiin power. It cannot be tliat the people of the kiyal States, — that 
twentv-two milHous of bra^e and prosperous freemen, — will, for the temptation of a 
brief truce in an eternal border-war, consent to tliis hideous national suicide. 

Do not think that I exaggerate the eonsecpiences of yielding to the demands of 
the leaders of the Kebellion. I miderstate them. They require of us not only all 
the sacrifices I have named, not only the cession to them, a foreign and hostile po\\er. 
of all the territory of the United States at present occupied by the Kebel forces, but 
the abandonment to them of the \ ast regions we haAC rescued from their grasp, — of 
^Maryland, of a i)art of Ivistern \irginia and tlie whole of Western A'irginia ; the 
sea-coast of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida ; Kentucky, Tennessee 
and ^lissouri ; Arkansas, and tlu> larger portion of Mississipi)i, Louisiana and Texas, 
— inmost of which, with the e\ce[)tion of lawless guerillas, there is not a rebel in 
arms, in all of which the great majority of the people are loyal to the Union. A\'e 
must give back, too, the helpless colored ])0])ulation. thousands of whom are perilling 
their lives in the ranks of our armies, to a bondage rendered tenfold more bitter by 
the momentary enjoyment of freedom. Finally, Ave must surrender every man in the 
Southern comitry. white or black. Avho has moved a finger or spoken a word for the 
restoration of tiie Union, to a reign of terror as renun'seless as tliat of Robespierre, 
which has been the chi(-f instrument by wliicli tlu' lU'l)ellion has been organized and 
sustained, and which has already tilled the prisons of the South with noble men, 
whose only crime is tliat they are not the worst of criminals. The South is full of such 
men. 1 do not believe there has been a day since the election of President Lincoln. 
Avhen. if an ordinance of secession could have been fairly submitted, after a free 
discussion, to the mass of the people in any single Southern State, a majority of 
ballots would have been giAcn in its faAor. Xo, not in South Carolina. It is not 
possible that the majority of the people, even of that State, if permitted, without fear 
or favor, to give a ballot on the cpiestion. would have abandoned a leader like Petigru, 
and all the memories of the (Jadsdens. the Kutledges. and the Cotesworth Tinckneys 
of the revolutionary and constitutionid age. to follow the agitators of the jjresent 
dav. 



I 

SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 51 

Nor must we be deterred from the vigorous prosecution of the war by the sug- 
gestions, continually thrown out by the Rebels and those who sympathize with them, 
that, however it might have been at an earlier stage, there has been engendered by 
the operations of the war a state of exasperation and bitterness, which, independent 
of all reference to the original nature of the matters in controversy, will forever 
prevent the restoration of the Union, and the return of harmony between the two 
great sections of the country. This opinion I take to be entirely without foundation. 

No man can deplore more than I do the miseries of every kind unavoidably 
incident to Avar. Who could stand on this spot and call to mind the scenes of the 
first days of July with any other feeling I A sad foreboding of what would ensue, if 
Avar should break out between North and South, has haunted me through life, and 
led me, perhaps too long, to tread in the path of hopeless compromise, in the fond 
endeavor to conciliate those Avho Avere predetermined not to be conciliated. 13ut it is 
not true, as is pretended by the Rebels and their sympathizers, that the Avar has been 
carried on by the United States Avithout entire regard to those temperaments AA'hich 
are enjoined by the laAV of nations, by our modern civilization, and by the spirit of 
C'hristianity. It Avould be quite easy to point out, in the recent military history of 
the leading European poAvers, acts of violence and cruelty, in the prosecution of their 
Avars, to AA'hich no parallel can be found among us. In fact, when Ave consider the 
peculiar bitterness with which civil Avars are almost invariably Avaged, Ave may justly 
boast of the manner in which the United States have carried on the contest. It is of 
course impossible to prevent the laAvless acts of stragglers and deserters, or the occasional 
uuAvarrantable proceedings of subordinates on distant stations ; but I do not believe 
there is, in all history, the record of a ciA'il Avar of such gigantic dimensions AA'here 
so little has been done in the spirit of vmdictiveness as in this Avar, by the Govern- 
ment and the commanders of tlic United States ; and this notAvithstanding the provo- 
cation given by the Rebel GoA'ernment by assuming the responsibility of Avretches 
like Quantrell, refusing quarter to colored troops and scourging and selling into 
slavery free colored men from the North aa'Iio fall into their hands, by covering the 
sea Avith pirates, refusing a just exchange of prisonc^-s, AA-hile they crowd their armies 
Avith paroled prisoners not exchanged, and starving prisoners of Avar to death. 

In the next place, if there are any present Avho believe that, in addition to the 
effect of the military operations of the war, the confiscation acts and emancipation 
proclamations have embittered the Rebels beyond the possibility of reconciliation, 



ry) CONSECJiATJOy OF THE 

1 would icMinost tlirii; to reflect that the tone of the IJehel k-aders and Rebel i)rcss 
was just as hitter in the tirst months of the war. nay. liefore a i>;un was tiri'd. as it is 
now. There were speeches made in Congress in the very last session before the 
outbreak of the Kehellion, so ferocious as to show that their authors were under the 
influence of a real frenzy. At the present day, if there is any discrimination made 
by the Confederate press in the aftected scorn, hatred, and contumely with \\hich 
everv sliade of opinion and sentiment in the loyal States is treated, the bitterest 
contempt is bestowed ni)on those at tlie North who still speak the language of 
compromise, and who condemn those measures of the administration which are 
alleged to have rendered the return of peace hopeless. 

Xo. mv friends, that gracious Providence which o\i'rrules all things for the best 

" from seeming evil still educing good," has so constituted our natures, that the 

\iolent excitement of the passions in one dii-ection is generally followed by a reaction 

in an opposite direction, and the sooner for the A'iolence. If it Avere not so, — if 

injuries inflicted and retaliated of necessity led to new retaliations, with forever 

accumulating compound interest of revenge, then thv world, tliousands of years ago. 

would have been turned into an earthly hell, and the nations of the earth woidd 

have been resolved into clans of furies and demons, each forever warring with his 

neighbor. But it is not so ; all history teaches a diftcrcnt lesson. The "Wars of the 

Roses in England lasted an entire generation, from the Battle of St. Albans in 1455, 

to that of Bosworth Field in 14S5. Speaking of the former. Ilumc says: " This was 

the tirst blood spilt in that fatal quarrel, which was not finished in less than a course 

of thirty vears ; which was signalized by twelve pitched battles ; which opened a 

scene of extraordinary fierceness and cruelty ; is computed to have cost the lives of 

eighty ])rinces of the blood ; and almost entii'ely annihilated the ancient nobility of 

England. The strong attachmcuts which, at that time, men of the same kindred bore 

to each other, and the \indictive spirit which was considered a point of honor, 

rendered the great f.milies im]dacable in their resentments, and widened every 

moment the breech between the parties." Such was the state of things in England 

under which an entire generation grew up; but when Henry \ 11.. in whom the 

titles of the two Houses were luiited. went up to London after the Battle of Bosworth 

Field, to mount the throne, he was everywhere received witli joyous acclamations, 

" as one ordained and sent from heaven to \nit an end to the dissensions " which had 

so long atthcted the country. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 53 

The great Rebellion in Eno'land of the seventeenth century, after long and 
angrv premonitions, may be said to have begun with the calling of the Long Parlia- 
ment in 1640, and to have ended with the return of Charles II. in 1660, — twenty 
years of discord, conflict and civil war ; of contiscation, plunder, havoc ; a proud 
hereditary peerage trampled in the dust ; a national church overturned, its clergy 
beggared, its most eminent prelate put to death ; a miUtary despotism established on 
the ruins of a monarchy which had subsisted seven hundred years, and the legitimate 
sovereign brought to the block ; the great families which adhered to the king pro- 
scribed, impoverished, ruined ; prisoners of war — a fate worse than starvation in 
I^iliby — sold to slavery in the West Indies ; in a word, everything that can embitter 
and madden contending factions. Such Avas the state of things for twenty years ; 
and yet, by no gentle transition, but suddenly, and " when the restoration of aftairs 
appeared most hopeless," the son of the beheaded sovereign was brought back to 
his father's blood-stained throne, with such " unexpressible and universal joy " as led 
the merry monarch to exclaim " he doubted it had been his own fault he had been 
absent so long, for he saw nobody who did not protest he had ever wished for his 
return." " In this wonderful manner," says Clarendon, •' and with tliis incredible 
expedition, did God put an end to a rebeUion that had raged near twenty years, and 
had been carried on with all the horrid circumstances of murder, devastation and 
parricide, that fire and sword, in the hands of the most wicked men in the world " — 
it is a Eoyahst that is speaking — " could be instruments of, almost to the desolation 
of two kingdoms, and the exceeding defacing and deforming of the third. . . . 
By these remarkable steps chd the merciful hand of God, Lu this short space of time, 
not only bind up and heal all those Avounds, but even made the scar as undiscernable 
as, in respect of the deepness, was possible, which was a glorious addition to the 
deliverance." 

In Germany, the wars of the Reformation and of Charles V. in the six- 
teenth century, the Thirty Years' War in the seventeenth century, the Seven 
Years' War in the eighteenth century, not to speak of other less celebrated 
contests, entailed upon that country all the miseries of intestine strife for more 
than three centuries. At the close of the last-named war, — which was the 
shortest of all and waged in the most civilized age, — " an oificer," says Archenholz, 
" rode through seven villages in Hesse, and found in them but one human being." 
More than three hundred principalities, comprehended in the Empire, fermented 



54 CONSECRATION OF THE 

with the tierce passions of ])n)U(l and petty States ; at the coninieiicemcnt of this 
period the castles of rol)l)er counts frowned upon every hill-top ; a dreadful secret 
tribunal, whose seat no one knew, \\hose power none could escape, froze the hearts 
of men with terror tliroui^hout the land ; reliijious hatred minified its l)ittcr poison in 
the seething caldron of i)rovin(ial animosity : but of all these deadly enmities 
between the States of Germany scarcely the memory remains. There are contro- 
versies in that country at the present day, but they grow mainly out of the rivalry of 
the two leading powers. There is no country in the world in which the sentiment of 
national brotherhood is stronger. 

In Italy, on the breaking up of the Roman l^mpirc, society might be said to be 
resolved into its original elements, — into hostile atoms, whose only moA'cment Avas 
that of mutual repulsion. Ruthless barbarians had destroyed the old organizations 
and covered the land with a merciless feudalism. As the new civilization grew up, 
under the wing of the C'hnrcli. the noble families and the walled towns fell madly 
into contlict with each other ; the secular feud of Pope and Emperor scourged the 
land ; province against province, city against city, street against street, waged remorse- 
less war with each other from father to son, till Dante was able to fill his imaginary 
hell with the real demons of Italian history. So ferocious had the factions become, 
that the great poet-exile himself, the glory of his native city and of his native 
language, was, by a decree of the municipality, condemned to be burned alive if found 
in the city of Florence. But these deadly feuds and hatreds yielded to political 
influences, as the hostile cities were grouped into States under stable governments ; 
the lingering traditions of the ancient animosities gradually died away, and now- 
Tuscan and I.orabard, Sardinian and Neapolitan, as if to shame the degenerate sons 
of America, are joining in one cry for a united Italy. 

In France, not to go back to the civil wars of the League in the sixteenth 
century and of the Fronde in the seventeenth ; not to speak of the dreadful scenes 
throughout the kingdom, which followed the revocation of the edict of Xantes ; we 
have, in the great revolution which commenced at the close of the last century, seen 
the blood-hounds of c\\\\ strife let loose as rarely before in the history of the w'orld. 
The reign of terror established at Paris stretched its bloody Briarean arms to every 
citv and village in the laud, and if the most deadly feuds which ever divided a i)eople 
had the power to cause permanent alienation and hatred, this surely was the occasion. 
But Far otherwise the fact. In seven years from the fall of Robespierre, the strong 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 55 

arm of the youthful conqueror brought order out of tliis chaos of crime and Avoe ; 
Jacobins, Avhosc hands were scarcely cleansed from the best blood of France, met the 
returning emigrants, whose estates they had confiscated and whose kindred they had 
dragged to the guillotine, in the Imperial antechambers ; and when, after another 
turn of the wheel of fortune, Louis XVIII. was restored to his throne, he took the 
regicide Fouche, who hud voted for his brother's death, to his cabinet and confidence., 

The people of loyal America wUl never ask yon, Sir, to take to your confidence 
or admit again to a share in the government the hard-hearted men whose cruel lust 
of power has brought this desolating war upon the land, but there is no personal 
bitterness felt even against them. They may live, if they can bear to live after wan- 
tonly causing the death of so many thousands of their fellow-men ; they may live in 
safe obscurity beneath the shelter of the government they have sought to overthrow, 
or they may fly to the protection of the governments of Europe, — some of them are 
already there, seeking, happily in vain, to obtain the aid of foreign powers in fur- 
therance of their own treason. There let them stay. The humblest dead soldier, 
that lies cold and stiff in his grave before us, is an object of envy beneath the clods 
that cover him, in comparison with the living man, I care not with what trumpery 
credentials he may be furnished, who is willing to grovel at the foot of a foreign 
throne for assistance in compassing the ruin of his country. 

But the hour is coming and now is, when the power of the leaders of the 
Rebellion to delude and inflame must cease. There is no bitterness on the part of 
the masses. The people of the South are not going to wage an eternal war, for the 
wretched pretexts by which this rebellion is sought to be justified. The bonds that 
unite us one People, — a substantial community of origin, language, belief and law 
(the four great ties that hold the societies of men together) ; common national and 
political interests ; a common history ; a common pride in a glorious ancestry ; a 
common interest in this great heritage of blessings ; the very geographical features 
of the country ; the mighty rivers that cross the lines of climate and thus facilitate 
the interchange of natural and industrial products, while the wonder-working arm of 
the engineer has levelled the mountain-walls which separate the East and West, 
compelling your own Alleghanies, my Maryland and Pennsylvanian friends, to open 
wide their everlasting doors to the chariot wheels of traffic and travel, — these bonds 
of union are of perennial force and energy, while the causes of alienation are 
imaginary, factitious and transient. The heart of the People, North and South, is 



56 COXSECNATIOX OF THE 

for the Inion. Iiulirations, too ])l;iiu to be mistaken, announce tlie tact. l)oth in 
the East and the "West of tlie States in rebellion. In North Carolina and Arkansas 
the fatal charm at Icniith is broken. At Kalcigh and Little Kock the lips of honest 
and brave men are unsealed, and an independent press is nnliinl)eriug its artillery. 
When its rifled cannon shall begin to roar, the hosts of treasonable sophistry, — the 
mad delusions of the day, — will fly like the Rebel army through the passes of yonder 
mountain. The weary masses of the people are yearning to see the dear old flag 
again floating upon their capitols, and they sigh for the return of the peace, pros- 
perity, and happiness, which they enjoyed under a government whose power was felt 
only in its blessings. 

And now friends, fellow -citi/ens of Gettysburg and Pennsylvania, and you from 
remoter States, let me again, as we ])art. invoke your benediction on these bonored 
ffraves. You feel, thoua;h the occasion is mournful, tlnit it is i>;ood to be here, "ion 
feel that it was greatly auspicious for the cause of the country, that the men of the 
East and the men of the "West, the men of nineteen sister States, stood side by side, 
on the perilous ridges of the battle. You now feel it a new bond of union, that they 
shall lie side by side, till a clarion, louder than that which marshalled them to the 
combat, shall awake their slumbers. God bless the Union ; — it is dearer to us for 
the blood of brave men which has been shed in its defence. The sjiots on which 
they stood and fell; these pleasant heights; the fertiU- ])lain l)eneath them; the 
thriviu" village whose streets so lately rang with the strange din of war ; the tields 
beyond the ridge, where the noble Reynolds held the advancing foe at bay, and. while 
he gave up his own life, assured, by his forethought and self-sacrifice, the triumph of 
the two succeeding days ; the little streams which wind through the hills, on whose 
banks in after-times the wondering ploughman will turn up. with the rude weapons 
of savage warfare, the fearful missiles of modern artillery ; Seminary Ridge, the 
Peach-Orchard, Cemetery, Culp. and AVolf llill, Round Top. Little Round Top, 
humble names, henceforward dear and famous, — no lapse of time, no distance of 
space, shall cause you to be forgotten. " The whole earth," said Pericles, as he stood 
over the remains of his fellow-citizens, who had fallen in the first year of the Pelo- 
ponnesian War, •• the whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men." All time, he 
might have added, is the millennium of their glory. Surely I Mould do no injustice 
to the other noble acliievements of the war, which have reflected such honor on both 
arms of the service, and have entitled the armies and the ua\y of the United States, 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 



57 



their officers and men, to the warmest thanks and the richest rewards which a grateful 
people can pay. But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to 
the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the 
accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded 
time, in the glorious annals of our common country there wiU be no brighter page 
than that a\ Inch relates to The Battle of Gettysburg. 
8 




.-)S COXSKCL'ATIOX OF THE 



inMN COMrOSKl) \\\ W. W. I'KKNCIl. KSQ.. A'l' ( iK T'l'VSBrRG. 



'Tis lioiy ground, — 
This fipot, whore, in their graves, 
We i)laee our countn's braves. 
Who IVII ill Fri'i'Uoin's holy eauso. 
Fighting for liberties and laws ; 

Let tears abound. 

Here let them rest ; 
And summer's heat and \vi liter's eold 
Shall glow anil freeze above this mould, — 
A thousand years shall pass away. — 
A nation still shall mourn this elay, 

Whieh now is blest. 

Here, where they fell, 
Otl shall the widow's tears be shed ; 
Oft shall fond (lareiits moiiru their dead ; 
The orphan here shall kneel and weep ; 
And maidens, where their lovers sleep, 

Their woes shall tell. 

Great God in heaven I 
Shall all this saered blood be shed? 
Shall we thus mourn our glorious dead? 
Oh, shall the end be wrath and woe. 
The knell o\' Freedom's overthrow. 

A eouiitrv riven ? 

U will not be! 
■\Ve trust, O God, Thy graeions power 
To aid us in our darkest hour. 
This be our prayer, — O Father I save 
A people's freedom from its grave. 

All praise to Thee ! 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 5!) 



DEDICATORY ADDHKSS Ol' IMMISI DKNl' I.I\('()|,N. 



FouRSC'ORK iuul s(-\('ii yciirs ago our latlicrs hrou^lit forth upon tliis coutincnl 
a new nation, concoixcd in l-ilx'rty. and (lodicatcd to the |)ro|)ositioii tliat all www are 
created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great (•i\il war, testing A\hetlier tliat nation, or any 
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. AVe are inet on a great 
battle-tield of that war. We are met to dedicate a, i)ortion of it as tlie hnal resting- 
place of those who here ga\(' their lives that lliat nation might live. It is altogether 
fitting and proper that we shoidd do this. 

15ut in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 
hallow this ground. Tiie l)ra\'e mcni, li\iiig and dead, who struggled hei'c, ha\'e 
consecrated it far above our powei- to add or detract, 'i'he world will little note nor 
long remember what we say here, hut it can never forget what they did heie. It is 
for us, the li^■ing, rather to be dedicated here to the nnfinisheil work that they have 
thns far so nobly carried on. It is rather I'or ns to he here dedicated to the great 
task remaining before us, — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion 
to the cause for which they here gave the last fiill measure of devotion, — that we 
hero highly resolve that the dead shall not liave died in \ain; that the nation shall, 
under God, have a, new birth of freedom, and that (lie goxcrninent of the people, by 
the people, and for the peo])le, shall nut jicrisli from the earth. 



liO COXSECliATlOX OF THE SOLDIERS' XATJOXAL CEMETERY. 



m\iGY. sr\{i \v Tin: ((^'si-cij \tiox of ttik sot.dikks- cf.mktery 



WKHTKN BY JAS. G. PERIIVAI.. 



Oh, it is great for our country to die I whose ranks are contending ; 

Bright is the wre.-ith of our fame ; glory awaits us for aye : 
Glory, that never is dim, shining on with a light never ending ; 

Glory, that never shall fade, never, oh never away ! 

Oh, it is sweet for our country to ilie ! how softly reposes 
Warrior yonth on his bier ! wet by the tears of his love, — 

Wet by a mother's warm tears ; they crown him with garlands of roses ; 
Weep, and then joyously turn, — bright where he triumphs above I 

Not in Elysian fields, by the still oblivious river. 

Not in the Isles of the blest, over the bine rolling sea. 
But on Olympian heights shall dwell the devoted for ever ; 

There shall assemble the good, there the wise, valiant and free. 

Oh, then how great for our ci>untry to die, in the front rank to perish ! 

Firm with our breast to the foe, victory's shout in our ears ! 
Long they our statues shall crown, in songs our memory cherish ; 

We shall look forth from our heaven, pleased tU.e sweet music to hear. 

The Boiioiiiction was pronounced by the Rev. II. I.. Baugher. D. D.. President 
ol" IVnnsvlvania College. Gettysburg. 



EXERCISE S 



|a]|iitij of tlic l^orncr ^k\u of tlie ||onument 



IN THE 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 



JULY 4tu, 1865. 



faiiincj of the Coriur-o^ionc of iljc illonumcnt. 



IM 1 K 1' R 1'. S 1 i J E N T ' 8 J . E T T E U . 

^fif^ IS I'Acellcncy, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, ha\in,s>- Ix-en 
^||jj pnnonted from being in-esent, by reason of severe ilhiess, sent the Marshal 
■hJ of the District of Cohimbia, Judge Gooding, as his special messengej-, A\ho 

presented the following communication from His Excellency: 

ExKCUTivii Mansion, Wasuington, D. C, July 'drd, 18G5. 
Mk. JJavid Wills, Chairman, etc., Gettysburg, Pa. 

Dear Siu,— I liad promised myself the pleusure of participating in person in the proceedings at 
Gettysbnrg to-morrow. That pleasure, owing to my indisposition, I am reluctantly compelled to 
fore"-o. I should have been pleased, standing on that twice consecrated spot, to share with yon your Joy 
at the return of police, to greet with you the surviving heroes of the war who come back with light 
hearts, though heavy laden with honors, and witli you to drop grateful tears to the memory of those 
who will never return. 

Unable to do so in person, I can only se;id you my greetings, and assure you of my full sym- 
p.nthy with the purpose and spirit of your exercises to-morrow. Of all the anniversaries of the 
Declaration of Independence, none has been more important and significant than that upon which you 

assemble. 

Four years of struggle for our nation's life have been crowned with success ; armed treason is 
swept from the land ; our ports are re-opened ; our relations with other nations are of the most 
satisfactory character ; our internal commerce is free ; our soldiers and sailors resume the peaceful- 
pursuits of civil life ; our Hag floats in eveiy breeze ; and the only barrier to our national progress- 
human slavery— is for ever at an end. Let us trust that each recurring Fourth of July shall find 
our nation stronger in numbers, stronger in wealth, stronger in the harmony of its citizens, stronger 
in its devotion to nationality and freedouL 



64 LAYIXG OF THE CORXER STONE OF THE MOXUMEXT IX THE 

As I have often said, I believe that God sent this people on a mission among the nations of tiie 
earth, and that when He founded our nation lie founded it in perpetuity. That faith sustained me 
tiirouy;h the stniirgle tiiat is past. It sustains mo now that new duties are devolved upon me and new 
dangers threaten us. I feel that whatever the means He uses, the Almighty is determined to preserve 
us as a people. 

And since I know the love our fellow-citizens bear their country, and the sacrifices they have 
made for it, my abiding faith has become stronger than ever that a " government of the people" is 
the strongest as well as the best of governments. 

In your joy to-morrow, I trust you will not forget the thousands of whites, as well as lilacks, 
whom the war has emancipated, who will hail this Fourth of .Tuly with a delight which no previous 
Declaration of Independence ever gave them. Controlled so long by ambitious, selfish leaders, who 
used them for their own unworthy ends, they are now free to serve and cherish the government against 
whose life they, in their blindness, struck. I am greath- mistaken if in the States lately in rebellion 
we do not henceforward have an exhibition of such loj-alty and patriotism as were never seen nor felt 
there before. 

Having consecrated a National Cemetery, you are now to laj- the corner-stone of a National 
Monument, which, in all human probability, will rise to the full height and proportion you design. 
Noble as this monument of stone may be. it will be but a faint symbol of the grand monument which, 
if we do our duty, we shall raise among the nations of the earth upon the foundation laid nine and 
eighty years ago in Philadelphia. Time shall wear away and crumble this monument, but that, based 
as it is, upon the consent, virtue, patriotism und intelligence of the people, each year shall make 
firmer and more imposing. 

Your friend and fellow-citizen, 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 

Kciimiks and Prayer wore niado by the Kev. Stephen H. Tyng. D. 1). 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. H5 



THE GETTYSBURG MONUMENTAL ODE. 

{Sung by tlie National Union Musical Association .) 



This battle field — our nation's gloiy, — 
Where sweetly sleeps our fallen braves ; 

Proclaims aloud tlie tragic story — 
The story of their hallowed graves ! 

Yes ! here on Gettysburg's sad plain, 
This monument the tale will tell, 

That thousands for their flag were slain — - 
Whilst fighting for the Union — fell ! 

Here red artillery's deadly- fire 

Mowed squadrons down in dread array ; 
Here Meade compelled Lee to retire ; 

And Howard held his ground that day. 

Then let tiiose tattered banners wave ; 

For ever sacred be this ground ; 
Sing pffians to those warriors brave, 

And be their deeds with glorj- crowned. 

Wives, mothers, sisters, orphans dear, 
Shall gather round each clay-cold bed. 

And mourn their loved ones buried here — 
Their husbands, fathers, brothers dead. 

Now on this consecrated ground, 
Baptized with patriots' sacred blood, 

We dedicate each glorious mound 
To the Union Battle Flag and God ! 



liG LAYLXa OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE MONUMENT IN THE 



OIJ ATIOX OF ArA.TOTJ-fiF.XKU AI. O. O. lIOW\l{l). 



As I stand lun-c to-day iK-f'orc a ix-accful audience, composed as it is of beautiful 
ladies, joyous rliildien and liappy citi/mis. and think of my last visit to this place two 
years ago. and of tlie terrible scenes in \\hich it was my lot to bear a part. I cannot 
help exclaiming, " How changed ! how changed ! " It is the same rich landscajje, 
broad and beautiful, covered with every variety of natural objects to please the eye; 
the same wooded ridges and cultivated fields ; the same neat little town clinging to 
the hill-side ; the same broad avenues of approach ; the same ravines and creeks — 
but, thank (iod ! the awful magnificence of hosts arrayed against each other in deadly 
strife is wantini>;. Yonder heights are no longer crowneil with hostile cannon ; the 
vallevs do not reverberate with their fearful roar ; tlie groves- and the houses do not 
give back the indescribable peal of the musketry fire. And oh. how like a dream, 
to-dav seems that sad spectacle of broken tombstones, prostrate fences, and the 
ground strewn with our wounded and dead companions ! Then follows, after battle, 
the mingling of friends and enemies, with suffering depicted in all possible modes of 
portraiture. The surgeons, with resolute hearts and bloody hands ; the pale fates of 
relatives searching for dear ones ; the busy sanitary and Christian workers — all pass 
before my mind in grou]) after group. 

Mv friends, mv companions, my countrymen, suffer me to congratulate you 
anew to-dav. this Fourtli day of July, 1865. that this sad work is completely done, 
and that sweet peace has really dawned upon us. 

On the nineteenth of November, 1863, this National Cemetery, a pious tribute 
to manliness and virttu>. was consecrated. Tlie Hon. Edward Everett delivered an 
address in liis own rich, clear, elegant style, which, having l)ecn publi.shed. has long 
ao-o become historical, and affords ns a complete and grajihic account of the campaign 
and battle of Gettysburg. I am deeply grateful to this noble patriot for his indefa- 
ti"-able industrv in securing facts, and for the clear narrative he has left us of this 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 67 

battle, ill which every living loyal soldier who fought here, is now proud to have 
borne a part. He, joining the patriotic band of those that are honored by his 
eloquence, has gone to his reward ; and let his memory ever be mingled with those 
here, upon whose graves he so earnestly invoked your benediction. 

Mr. Everett was followed by the few remarkable words of President Lincoln. 
While Mr. Luicoln's name is so near and dear to us, and the memory of his work 
and sacrifice so fresh, I deem it not inappropriate to repeat his own words : 

" Fourscore anil seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon tliis continent a new nation, 
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

" Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or an\' nation, so con- 
ceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We are 
met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that 
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

" But in a lai'ger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. 
The brave men, living and dead, wiio struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add 
or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget 
what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated liere to the unfinished work that 
they have thus far so noliiy carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to tlie great task 
remaining before us ; tliat from these honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which 
thej- here gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not 
have died in vain ; that the nation shall, under God, have a new liirtli of freedom, and that the 
government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

The civil war is ended ; the test was complete. He, Abraham Lincoln, never 
forgot his own dedication till the work was finished. He did display even increased 
devotion if it were possible. The dead did not die in vam, and the nation has 
experienced already the new birth of freedom of which he spoke. Oh that in the 
last throes of darkness and crime God had seen it good to have spared us that great 
heart, out of which proceeded such welcome words of trutli and encouragement ! 
How very much of grateful recollection clusters aroiuid the name of Abraham 
Lincoln, as we pronounce it here among the dead who have died that their nation 
might not perish from the earth ! 

These gronrids have already been consecrated, and are doubly sacred from the 
memory of our brethren who lie here, and from the association with those remark- 
able men, ^Iv. Everett and Mr. I,iiicoln, who gave tone to the exercises of consecra- 
tion two years ago, whose own bodies are now resting beneath the sod, but whose 



68 LAYING OF THE COKXER-STOXE OF THE MOXUMEXT IX THE 

spirit is still livinii;. ;uul unmistakably animating every true American heart this day. 
\>'i' have now been called to lay the corner-stone of a monument. This monument 
is not a mere family record, not the simple memorial of individual fame, nor the 
silent tribute to genius. It is raised to the soldier. Tt is a memorial of his life and 
his noble death. It embraces a patriotic brotherhood of heroes in its inscriptions, 
and is an unceasing herald of labor, suffering, union, liberty, and sacrifice. Let us 
then, as is ])vo])er on such an occasion as this, give a few thoughts to the American 
soldier. 

^^'e have now embraced under this generic name of soldier, tlie dutiful officer, 
the volunteer soldier, the regidar. the colored and the conscript ; but in my remarks 
1 will present vou {\w in-irate colnnteer a»s the representative American soldier. 

In the earlv part of ISGl. tlu> true citizen heard that traitors at ^^'ashington had 
formed a conspiracv to overthrow the Government, and soon after, that the stars and 
stripes had been fired ujiou and luul been hauled down at the bidding of an armed 
enemv in South Carolina; that the Capitol of the nation was threatened, and that 
our new President had called for help. How cpiickly the citizen answered the call ! 
Almost like magic he s])rang forth a soldier. His farm or his bench, his desk or his 
counter, was left behind, and you find him marching through thi' tlu-n gloomy, 
fiao-less, defiant streets of Baltimore, fully equipped for service, with uniform grey, 
blue, red or green — it then mattered not ; with knapsack, cartridge-box. musket and 
bavonet, his outfit was all tliat was requii-ed. He was a little awkward, his accoutre- 
ments mudi awry, his will unsubdued. He did not keep step to music, nor always lock 
stc]) with his companions. He had scarcely ever fired a musket, but he had become 
a soldier, put on the soldiers garb, set his face towards the enemy, and. (xod willing, 
he purposed never to turn back till the soldier's work was done. You meet him at 
AVashington — on Meridian Hill perhaps ; discipline and drill seize upon him, restrain 
his libertv and mould his body. Colonels, captains, lieutenants and sergeants, his 
former ec^uals, order him about, and he must obey them. Oh what days ! and oh 
what nights ! Where is home and affection ? Where is the soft bed and the loaded 
table ? Change of climate, change of food, m ant of rest, want of all kinds of old 
things, and an influx of all sorts of new things, make liim sick — yes. really sick in 
bodv and soul. But. in spite of a few doses of quinine and a wholesome hospital 
bed and diet (as the soldier of 1861 remembers them), his vigorous consthntion and 
indomitable heart prevail, so that he is soon able to cross the Long Bridge and invade 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 69 

the sacred red clay of ^"irginia. witli his companions in arms. Yet, perhaps, should 
you now observe him very closely, you will perceive his enthusiasm mcreasiug faster 
even than his stren,<^th. He is on the enemy's side of the river ; now for strict guard 
duty ; now for the lonely picket amid the thickets, where men are killed by ambushed 
foes. How the eye and the ear, and, may I say it. the heart are quickened in these 
new and trying vigils ! Before long, however, the soldier is inured to these things ; 
be becomes familiar with every stump, tree, and pathway of approach, and his trusty 
gun, and stouter heart, defy any secret foe. 

Presently you find him on the road to battle ; the hot weather of July, the usual 
load, the superadded twenty extra rounds of cartridges, and three days rations strung 
to his neck, and the long weary march, .piite exhaust his strength during the very 
first day. He aches to leave the ranks and rest, but no, no ! He did not leave home 
for theignominious name of - straggler "' and - skulker." Cost what it may. he toils 
on. The Acotink, the Cub Run, the never-to-be-forgotten Bull Run, are passed. 
Here, of a sudden, strange and terrible sounds strike upon his ear, and bear down 
upon his heart ; the booming of shotted cannon ; the screeching of bursted shell 
through the heated air. and the zip. zip. zip, of smaller balls ; everything produces 
a singular effect upon him. Again, all at once he is thrown, quite unprepared, upon 
a new and trpng experience ; for now he meets the groaning ambulance and the 
bloody stretcher. He meets limping, armless, legless, disfigured, wounded men. 
To the right of bun and to the left of him are the lifeless forms of the slain. 
Suddenly a large iron missile of death strikes close beside him and explodes, sending 
out twenty or more jagged fragments, which remorselessly maim or kill five or six 
of his mates before they have had the opportunity to strike one blow for theii- 
country. His face is now very pale ; and will not the American soldier flinch and 
turn back ? There is a stone wall ! there is a building ! there is a stack of hay ! 
it is so easy to hide ! But no. He will not be a coward. " O God, support and 
strengthen me ! '' Tis all his prayer. Soon he is at work. Yonder is the foe ! 
" Load and tire ! " '■ Load and fire ! " But the cry comes, •• Our flank is turned ! " 
" Our men retreat ! " ^Vith tears pouring down his cheek, he slowly yields, and joins 
the retiring throng. Without any more nerve and little strength, he struggles back 
from a lost field. Now he drinks the dregs of suff-ering. AMthout blanket for the 
night, without food, without hope, it is no wonder that a panic seizes him and he 
runs demoralized away. 



70 LAYJXG OF THE CORXEh'-STOXE OF THE MOXCMEXT JX THE 

This disic]iiitalilc course, houixer. is only temporary. The soldier before long 
forgets his defeats and his sutferings, brightens np his armor, and resumes liis place 
on the dcftMisive line, lie submits for weary days to discipline, drill, and hard fare; 
he wades through the snows of winter and the deep mud of a \irginia spring. He 
sleeps upon the ground, upon the deck of transport steamer, and upon the floor of 
the platform car. lie helps load and unload stores ; he makes fascines and gabions ; 
he corduroys cpiicksands, and bridges creeks and bogs. Night and day he digs, or 
watches in the trenches. 

What a Avorld of new experience ! AMiat peculiar labor and suffering he passes 
through, the soldier alone can tell you. He now marches hurriedly to his second 
battle ; soon after he is in a scries of them. Fight and fall back ! Fight and tail 
back I (^h those days of hopelessness, sorrow, toil, and emaciation I How vividly 
the living soldier remembers them, those days when he cried from the bottom of his 
heart. •• () God, how long! how long!" "Woiild yon have patience to follow him 
through the commingling of disasters from the battle of Cedar !Moinitain to the 
same old Bull Eun, you would emerge with him from the chaos and behold his 
glistening bayonet again on the successful field of Antietam, where a glimmer of 
hope lighted up his heart. "Would you go with him to the bloody fields of Fredericks- 
burg, staunch his wounds in the wilderness of Chancellors ville, and journey on with 
him afterwards to this hallowed ground of Gettvsburs ; and could von be enabled to 
read and record his toils, his sufferings, and all his thoughts, you might be able to 
appreciate the true American soldier. You might then recite the lu"st chapter of the 
cost of the preservation of the American Vnion. 

In September, 1863, after the battle of Gettysburg, the Government sends two 
army corps to reinforce our brethren in the AVest. The solcUer is already iar from 
home and friends, but he is suddenly apprised that he must go two thousand miles 
further. He cannot visit his family to take leave of them. He has scarcely the 
opportunity of writing a Ime of farewell. The chances of death are multitudinous 
as they appear before his imagination, and the hope of returning is very slender. 
Yet ajjain the soldier does not falter. AYith fortv others he crowds into the close, 
unventilated freight car. and speeds away, night and day. without even the luxury of 
a decent seat. ^^ ith all the peculiar discomforts of this journey, the backings .md 
the waitings at the railroad junctions, the transfers from car to car, and from train to 
train ; being contuied for days without the solace and strength derived from his 



SOLDIERS' XATIOXAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 71 

coflFee, there is yet something compensative in the exhilerating influence of change. 
And there is added to it. in passing through Ohio and Indiana, a rene«"ed inspiration 
as the people turn out in masses to welcome him and to bid him God speed ; as little 
gii'ls throw wreaths of flowers round his neck, kiss his bronzed cheek, and strew his 
car with other ofi"erings of love and devotion. Such impressions as were here 
received were never efi"accd. They touched the rough heart anew with tenderness, 
and, being a reminder of all the old home aff"ections, only seiwed to deepen his 
resolution sooner or later, by the blessing of God, to reach the goal of his ambition ; 
that is to say, with his compatriots, to secui-e to his children, and to other children, 
enchirinj peace, with liberty and an undivided countiy. He passes on through 
Kentucky, through the battle fields of Tennessee, already historical. The names, 
Xash%-ille, Stone River, Murfreesboro, and Tullahoma, remind him of past struggles 
and portend future conflicts. He is deposited at Bridgeport, Alabama, a houseless, 
cheerless, chilly place, on the banks of the Tennessee ; possessing no interest further 
than that furnished bv the railroad bridge destroved. and the vet remaining rubbish 
and filth of an enemy's camp. 

Before many days the soldier threads his way up the valley of the great river 
which winds and twists amid the mgged mountains, till he finds himself beneath the 
rock-crowned steeps of Lookout. Flash after flash, volume after volume of light- 
colored smoke, and peal on peal of cannon, the crashing sound of shot and the 
screaming of shell, are the ominous signs of unfriendly welcome sent foi-th to meet 
him from this rocky height. Yet on he marches, in spite of threatening danger, in 
spite of the ambush along his route, until he has joined hands with his AVesteni 
brother, who had come from Chattanooga to meet and to greet him. 

This is where the valley of Lookout joins that of the Tennessee. At this place 
the stories of Eastern and AA'estem hardship, suff'eiing, battling, and danger, are 
recapitulated and made to blend into the common histoiy and the common sacrifice of 
the American soldier. 

"Were there time I would gladly take you step by step with the soldier as he 
bridges and crosses the broad and rapid river ; as he ascends and storms the height 
of Mission Ridge ; or as he plants his victorious feet, waves his banner, and flashes 
his gun on the top of Lookout Moimtain. I would carry you with him across the 
death-bearing streams of Chickamauga. I would have you follow him in his wearv, 
barefooted, ^\intry march to the relief of Knoxriille and back to Chattanooga. From 



-,•2 /..nv.vr- OF riiE corxer-^tone of the moxumext in the 

this point of \ iow I would o\w\\ up the spriuij campaign, where the great Gcucral 
initiated his remarkable w ork of genius and daring. I could point you to the soldier 
pursuing the enemy into the strongholds of Dalton, behind the stern, impassable 
features of Kocky Face. 

Kesaca, Adairs^ille. Cassville, Dallas, New Hope Church. Pickett's .Mill. i*ine 
Top, Lost Mountain, ivenesaw, Culp's Farm, Smyrna, Camp (iround. Peach Tree 
Creek, Atlanta, from so many points of view, and Jonesboro. are names of battle 
fields upon each of which a soldiers memory duells. For ujjwards of a hundred 
days he scarcely rested from the conflict. He skirmished over rocks, hills and 
mountains ; through mud. streams and forests. For hundreds of miles he gave his 
aid to dig that endless chain of entrenchments which compassed c\cry one of the 
enemy's fortitied positions. He companied with those who combatted the obstinate 
foe on the front and on the flanks of those mountain fastnesses which the enemy had 
deemed impregnable, and he had a right at last to echo the sentiment of his inde- 
fatigable leader. " Atlanta is ours, and fairly won." Could you now have patience to 
turn back with him and tight these battles over again, behold his communications cut, 
his railroad destroyed for miles and miles ; enter the bloody fight of Alatoona, follow 
him through the forced marches, via Rome, in (leorgia, away back to Kesaca. and 
through the obstructed gaps of the mountains into Alabama, you would thank God 
for giving him a stout heart and an unflinching faith in a just and noble cause. 
"NVeary and worn, he reposed at Atlanta, on his return, but one single night. Avheu he 
commenced the memorable march toward Savannah. 

The soldier has become a veteran ; he can miuxh all day with his musket, his 
knapsack, his cartridge-box, his haversack and canteen upon his person ; his muscles 
have become large and rigid, so that what was once extremely difficult he now 
accomplishes with graceful ease. This fi^ct must be borne in mind when studying 
the soldiers' marches through Georgia and the Carolinas. 

The enemy burned every bridge across stream after stream ; the rivers, bordered 
\vith swamps — for example, the Ocmulgee. the Oconee, and the Ogechee — were 
defended at every crossing. That they were passed at all by our forces, is due to the 
cheerful, fearless, indomitable private soldier. Oh that you had seen him, as I have, 
wading creeks a half mile in width, and water waist deep, under fire, pressing on 
through wide swamps, without one faltering step, charging in line upon the most 
formidable works, which were well defended ! You could then appreciate him and 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 73 

what he has accoinplished as I do. You could theu feel the poiguant sorrow that I 
always felt Avhen I saw him fall bleeding to the earth. 

I must now leave the soldier to tell his own tale amongst the people, of his 
bold, bloody work at McAllister, against the torpedoes, abattis. artillery, and mus- 
ketry ; of his privations at Savannah ; of his struggles through the swamps, quick- 
sands, and over the broad rivers of the Carolinas ; of the fights, fires, explosions, 
doubts, and triumphs suggested by Griswoldville, Rivers' and Binnaker's bridges, 
Orangeburg, Congaree creek, Columbia, Cheraw, Fayetteville. Averysboro, and 
Bentonville. I will leave him to tell how his hopes brightened at the reunion at 
Goldsboro ; how his heart throbbed with gratitude and joy as the wires confirmed the 
rumored news of Lee's defeat, so soon to be followed by the capture of the enemy's 
Capitol and of his entire army. I will leave him to tell to yourselves and your 
children, how he felt and acted, how proud was his bearing, how elastic -his step, 
as he marched in review before the President of the United States at Washington. 
I would do the soldier injustice not to say that there was one thmg wanting to make 
his satisfaction complete, and that was the sight of the tall form of Abraham Lincoln, 
and the absence of tliat bitter recollection which he could not altogether exclude 
from his heart — that he had ched by the hand of a traitor assassin. 

I have given vou only glimpses of the American soldier, as I have seen him. 
To feel the full force of what he has done and suffered, you should have accompanied 
him for the last four years. You should have stood upon the battle fields during 
and after the struggle ; and you should have completed your observation in the army 
hospitals, and upon the countless grounds peopled with the dead. The maimed 
bodies, the multidude of graves, the historic fields, the monumental stones like tliis 
we are laying to-day, after all are only meagre memorials of tlie soldiers' work. 
God grant that what he planted, nourished, and has now preserved by his blood — I 
mean American liherty — may be a plant dear to us as the apple of the eye, and 
that its growth may not be hindered till its roots are fiiinly set in every State of this 
Union, and till the full fruition of its blessed fruit is realized by men of every name, 
color and description, in this broad land. 

Now, as I raise my eyes and behold the place A\here my friend and trusted 

commander. General Reynolds, fell, let me add my own testimonial to that of others, 

that we lost in him a true patriot, a true man, a complete General, and a thorough 

soldier. Upon him, and the others who died here for their country, let there never 

cease to descend the most earnest benediction of every American heart. 
10 



74 LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE MONUMENT IN THE 

I,(>t nic roiigrntulate this noble Keystone State that it was ahk- t(j furnish such 
tried and alMe men as Reynolds who fell, and ^leade who lived to guide us success- 
full) through this wonderful and hotly contested battle. 

In the midst of all conflicts, of all sorrows and triumphs, let us never for an 
instant forget that there is a God in heaven whose arm is strong to help, whose balm 
is sweet to assuage every pain, and whose love embraces all joy. To Ilim, then, let 
us look in gratitude and praise that it has been His will so greatly to bless our 
nation ; and may this [Monument ever remind us and our posterity, in view of the 
fact that we prevailed against our enemies, " that righteousness exalteth a nation, 
but sin is a reproach to anv peo])le."' 




SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 75 



p o E :^i , 

BY ( HAKLES (i. IIALPINE, 

C'Milex O'Reilly.") 



As men beneath some pang of grief 
Or sudden joy will dumbly stand, 
Finding no words to give relief- 
Clear, passion-warm, complete and brief- 
To thoughts with which their souls expand 
So here to-day— these trophies nigh— 

Our trembling lips no utterance reach ; 
The hills around, the graves, the sky— 
The silent poem of the eye 

Surpasses all the art of speech ! 

To-day, a Nation meets to build 

A Nation's trophy to the dead 
Who, living, formed the sword and shield — 
The arras she sadly let^rned to wield 

When other hope of peace had fled. 
And not alone for those who lie 

In honored graves before us blent. 
Shall our proud column, broad and high. 
Climb ui)ward to the blessing sky. 

But be for all a monument. 

An emblem of our grief, as well 

For others as for these, we raise ; 
For these beneath our feet who dwell, 
And all who in the Good Cause fell 
On other fields, in other frays. 



7(i LAVIXG OF THE COnXER-STOXE OF THE MOXUMEXT IX THE 

To all the self-same love we bear. 

Which here for marbled memory strives ; 
No soldier for a wreath would care 
Which all true comrades might not share — 
Brothers in death as in their lives ! 

On Southern hill-sides, parched and brown. 

In tangled swamp, on verdant ridge. 
Where pines and broadening oaks look down. 
And jasmine weaves its yellow crown. 

And trumpet-creepers clothe the hedge ; 
Along the shores of endless sand, 

Beneath the palms of Southern plains. 
Sleep everywhere, hand locked in hand. 
The brothers of the gallant band 

AVho here poured life through throbbing veins. 

Aronnd the closing eyes of all 

The same red glories glared and flew — 
The hurrying flags, the bugle c^U. 
The whistle of the angry ball. 

The elbow-touch of comrades true ! 
The skirmish fire — a spattering spray ; 

The long, sharp growl of fire by file. 
The thickening fury of the fray 
When opening batteries get in pliy. 

And the lines form o'er many a mile. 

The foeman's j'ell, our answering cheer, 

Red flashes through the gathering smoke, 
S wifl orders, resonant and clear. 
Blithe cries from comrades tried and dear. 

The shell-scrsam and the sabre-stroke ; 
The rolling fire from left to right, 

From right to left, we hear it swell ; 
The headlong charges swift and bright. 
The thickening tumult of the fight 

And bursting thunders of the shell. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 77 

Now (leartlier, denser grows the strife, 

And here we yield aud there we gain ; 
The air with hurtling missiles rife, 
Volle\- for volley, life for life — 

No time to heed the cries of pain ! 
Pauting as up the hills we charge. 

Or down them as we broken roll ; 
Life never felt so high, so large ; • 
And never o'er so wide a marge, 

In triumph swept the kindling soul ! 

New raptures waken in the breast 

Amid this hell of scene and sound ; 
The barking batteries never rest. 
And broken foot, by horsemen pressed. 

Still stubbornl3- contest their ground. 
Fresh waves of battle rolling in 

To take the place of shattered waves ; 
Torn lines that grow more bent and thin — 
A blinding crowd, a maddening din — 

'Twas thus were filled these very graves ! 

Night falls at length with pitying veil — 
A moonlit silence deep aud fresh ; 

These upturned faces, stained and pale, 

Vainly the chill night dews assail- 
Far colder than the dews their flesh ! 

And flickering far through brush and wood 
Go searching parties, torch in hand — 

"Seize if you can some rest and food, 

At dawn the fight will be renewed ; 

Sleep on your arms ! " the hushed command. 

They talk in whispers as they lie 

In line — these rough and weary men ; 
" Dead or but wounded?" then a sigh ; 
" No coflfee either ! " '• Guess we'll try 

To get those two guns back again." 



78 LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE MONUMENT IN THE 

" "We live tliiss to their one ! olio ! " 

'' That bridge — 'twas hot there as we passed !'' 

" The colonel dead ! It can't be so ; 

Wounded and badly — that I know ; 
But lie kept saddle to the last." 

" Be sure to send it if I fall — " 

" Any tobacco ? Bill, have you ? " 
'• A brown-haired, blue-eyed, laughing doll — " 
'■ Good-night, boys, and God keep you all ! " 

"AVhat! sound asleep? Guess I'll sleep too." 
" Yes, just about this hour they prav 

For Dad." '■ Stop talking ! pass the word ! " 
And soon as quiet as the clay, 
AVhich thousands will but be next day. 

The long-drawn sighs of sleep are heard. 

Oh, men I to whom this sketch, though rude, 

Calls back some scene of pain and pride : 
Oh, widow ! hugging close your brood ; 
Oh, wife ! with happiness renewed, 

Since he again is at your side ; 
This trophy that to-day we raise. 

Should be a nionnnicnt for all ; 
And on its sides no niggard phrase 
Confine a generous Nation's praise 

To those who here have chanced to tall. 

But let us all to-day combine 

Still other nionuments to raise ; 
Here for the dead wc build a shrine ; 
And now to those who, crippled, pine. 

Let us give hope of happier days : — 
Let homes for these sad wrecks of war. 

Through all the land with speed arise ; 
Tongues cry from ever}- gaping scar. 
Let not our brother's tomb debar 

The wounded living from your eyes." 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CE3IETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 79 

A noble daj-, a deed as good ; 

A noble scene in which 'tis done ; 
The Birthday of our Xationhood : 
And here again the Nation stood 

On this same day — its life rewon ! 
A bloom of banners in the air, 

A double calm of sky and soul ; 
Triumphal chant and bugle blare, • 
And green fields, spreading bright and fair. 

AVhile heavenward oin- hosannas roll. 

Hosannas for a land redeemed, 

The bayonet sheathed, the cannon dumb ; 
Passed, as some horror we have dreamed, 
The fiery meteors that here streamed. 

Threatening within our homes to come I 
Again our banner floats abroad. 

Gone the one stain that on it fell — 
And, bettered hy His chastening rod, 
AVith streaming eyes uplift to God, 

We sav, " He doeth all things well." 



so LAYJSG OF TEE COBSER-STOyE OF THE MOXCilEXT IX THE 



H Y M X 

TO THE ilEMOHY OF OCR FAIXES HEROES AT THE BATTLE OF GETTTSBrRG. PEN>STLTA>iIA. 
(Sung by the Xatioital Union J/ii««ca/ Asaociation of Baltimore.) 



Uabk. ! a nation's sighs ascend : 
Hark : a tboasand roices blend ; 
From your thrones of gloiy bend. 
Sons of libertT. 

From each dark empurpled field. 
Where your blood the Union scaled. 
Spirit-tongues to-day have pealed 
The soldier's requiem. 

Where the smoke of battle curled. 
Where the bolt of death was hurled. 
Te our starry flag unfurled. 

Floating o'er the free. 

In the daii: and trying hour. 
Putting forth your steady power. 
Caused the Rebel hordes to cower. 
Just two years ago. 

Flashing sword and burning word. 
Southrons felt and Southrons heard — 
Plumed our country's banner-bird. 
Just two years ago. 

Martj-red sons of trying days. 
While the world resounds your praise. 
Hear the songs your children raise. 
Sons of libertT. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 81 



REMARKS OF HIS EXCELLENCY A. G. CURTIX, 

GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



The programme for the exercises of the occasion having been fultillecL calls 
were made by all the people present for Governor Curtin, who spoke in substance as 
follows : 

Having learned last week that my name occurred on the programme for the ceremonies of this 
occasion, llmmediately asked that it should be omitted. There did not seem to be time for such 
preparation as would be proper for a ceremonial like this. I am deeply grateful for your hearty and 
enthusiastic request that I should be heard, and I will draw upon the inspirations of the time and the 
place, the connection between the event and this Sabbath day of American Freedom, and the hallowed 
precincts within which we all stand. 

It would seem to be proper for me to express the thanks of the people of Pennsylvania to the 
citizens of the United States, who join with us to-day, and who have hitherto contributed their 
influence and means to the erection of this place of sepulture for the remains of those who perished 
in the great battles of Gettysburg, and who this day surround the foundation-stone of a monument to 
their memory. We thank the citizens of the eighteen States who have given valuable and voluntary 
service, as trustees of' the association, representing their respective States. We thank the people 
who have come up here in multitudes to participate in these solemnities. We thank that patriotic and 
benevolent brotherhood, so well represented here to-day by its chiefs, for their ancient rites and 
ceremonies, for their words of fraternity and love, contributed and pronounced u,,on the corner-stone 
of this structure, which is to be the Monument of the devotion and fidelity to country of their brothers 
and ours. And we are fortunate in having here with us, my fellow-citizens, the great chief who 
commanded the historic Army of the Potomac, on the signal day which made his fame and that of his 
Army, forever illustrious in the annals of American history ; and we express with one voice our 
thanks to him and his brave companions, so many of whom remain to surround him here, and honor 
us with their presence. But more than all, my fellow-citizens, let us all unite in our expressions of 
gratitude to the sublime heroism and unselfish patriotism of the private soldiers of the Republic ; for 
to them, above all others, we owe the safety of our free Government, aud the return of the blessings 
of peace and tranquility to our distressed country. I could not but feel the unselfishness of the words 
of the chosen orator of the day ; and the armless sleeve of the maimed General, seemed of itself 



f^.2 I.AYIXG OF THE COUXEli-STOXE OF THE MOXU-MENT. 

oloquont, wlioii lie l\>i<iut the statosiuen mid gtMieials of the war, and gave credit to the private soldier 
for all the glories whieh now snrrouml the blooil-staiued, but forever stable, institutions of American 

liberty. 

Our Monunient should be the choicest work of art on this continent ; it should be made beautiful 
and strouij. This place will forever be attractive ; the statesman can here meditate on the sacrifices 
made for liberty and civilization ; the soldier can study the faultless plan of battle ; and all can count 
here, the cost to this ijoneration of maintaining the principles of freedom, transmitted to ns from our 
ancestors. Uut no work of art can express our feelings of gratitude for the soldier of the Republic, 
living or dead ; he has his memory enshrined in the hearts of a grateful people.—" there a monument 
that needs no scroll." 

l>ut whv should I speak to you to-day? It is but two years since the death-struggle of rebellion 
and treason tilled this viillcv. now so peaceful, with bloodshed and caninge : and the thunders of the 
.irtillerv of that eventful strife will speak to man for his freedom and individuality, until time shall be 

no more. 

Stron<nM- than logic, sweeter than jioetry, the orators of this occasion lie in their graves around 
von ; no living lips can reach your hearts as does the mnte eloquence which comes up from the graves 
of the heroic dead. We arc all of one family, my fellow-citizens, the living and the dead ; those who 
lie around us shed benefactions upon us by the good they did ; let us this day draw inspiration from 
their sublime virtues, and strive like them to be faithful to the Government they died to save. 

We people of Pennsylvania give praise to God that it was of His mysterious providence that the 
blood of the people of eighteen States, here represented, should seal a covenant, made iu the hour of 
tlic nation's deepest agonv. that this great republic shall be for ever sacred to Union and fraternity, 
and pray lliiu that the lessons of Gettysburg shall sink deeply into the American heart. 

Tlie remarks tit' (iovorntn- Ciirtiii wmo iittorod with a fervor and earnestness 
that fastened the attention of the whole audience, and from their impassioned etfect, 
the reporters faihnl to take them down as fully as delivered. 

The Benediction was pronounced by the Kev. 1). T. C'arnahan. 




CLc^^ ,Vi /^'^^^^-^lM^c^ 



EXERCISE S 



DEDICATION OF THE MONUMENT 



^oldiciTj' llationni Ccmctcrg at (hctfijfiljurn. 



JULY 1st, 1869. 



The IXniicatorv Pnvver ^aiis made bv the Rev. Henn" AVard Beecher 



Cbc ^ctiitaticrn af the lilonuntciit. 




ADDKESS OF MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 

[Y Fellow-Citizens, T-adies and Gentlemen, — Six yoars ago I stood upon 
this ground under circumstances very different from those which now 

^■^ surround us. These beautiful liills and valleys, teeming with luxuriant 
crops, these happy faces around me, are widely different f.om the tumultuous roar of 
war and the terrible scenes enacted at that time. Four years ago I stood here, by in- 
vitation of some honorable gentlemen who have brought me here this time, and laid the 
corner-stone of the Monument which we are l)rought here to-day to dedicate; and now. 
for the third time. I appcnir before you at the request of the managers of the Monument 
Association, to render my assistance, humble as it is, in paying respect to the memory 
of the brave men who fell here, by dedicating this :Monuraent to them ; and at the 
request of these gentlemen 1 am about to make to you a few, a very few remarks 
which are incident to this occasion and suggested by it. When I look around and 
see, as I now see, so many brave men who were by my side in tliat memorable battle, 
among them his Excellency the present Governor of Pennsylvania, General Geary, 
und oUiers who were with me at that time ; when I look back and think upon the 
noble spirits wlio then fought so well, and now sleep that sleep that knows no 
waking— gallant Reynolds, my bosom friend, as well as my right hand officer ; brave 
Vincent, and Zook, and Weed, and others, far more in number than 1 have time of 
words to mention.— my feelings are those of mingled sadness and joy,— sadness, my 
friends, to think that there ever was an occasion when such men should be arrayed 



86 THE DEDUWriOX OF THE MOXUMESr IX THE 

ill battle, a-* tlu-\ were Iumv ; that \v(> shoulil tniM- hiwc Ixhmi called upon. a«i we were 
upon this field, to defend tin' tiaij ot" our couutiy and (iovenmicnt. \\lii(h had been 
handed down to us tVoni our fbiefatheis. It is sad to think ot" tlie nionrnini; and 
desolation which prostrated our whole haul. North and South ; it is sad to contem- 
plate the vast destruction of life which we here wrousjlit in obedience to our highest 
dutv. I am tilled with sadness to think of the host of inourning widows and orphans 
left throughout the land by that deadly struggle. Such thoughts necessarily crowd 
upon us. At the same time I give thanks to the Almighty, who directed the event, 
and who selecteil me as an humble instrument, witli those then around me upon 
this field, to obtain that decisive \ictory whicli turned the tide of that great war. and 
settled for e\er the trust in tliis country of the great principles of personal liberty 
and constitutional freedom. 1 feel grateful. ti>o. that our fellow-conntrynien have 
been mo\ed to such respect and honor as we are now ])aying to the memory of those 
men who. in the discharge of their duty, laid down their lives, proving, by the highest 
sacrifice man can render, their devotion to the cause they were defending. Gratitude 
to those present to-tlay. who. by their presence, contribute to render the high honor 
justly due to the fallen brave. 

There is one subject, my friends, which I will mention now and on this spot, 
while mv attention is being called to it. and on which I trust my feeble voice will ha\e 
some influence, ^^"llen I contemplate this field. I see here and there the marks of 
hastilv dui; trenches in which repose the dead against whom we fought. They are 
the work oi' my brothers in arms the day after the battle. Above them a bit of plank 
indicates simply that these remains of the fallen were hurriedly laid there by soldiers 
who met them in battle. \A"hy should we not collect them in some suitable place '. 
I do not ask that a monument be erected over them ; I do not ask tliat we should in 
anv wav endorse their cause or their conduct, or entertain other than feelings of 
condemnation for their course : but they are dead I They have gone before their 
Maker to be judged. In all civilized countries it is the usage to bury the dead w ith 
decency and i-espect, and even to fallen enemies respectful burial is accorded in death. 
I earnestlv hope that this suggestion may have some inHueuce throughout our broad 
land, for this is only one of a hundred crowded battle fields. Some persons may be 
designated by the Ciovermnent to collect these neglected bones and bury them with- 
out commemorating monuments, simply indiiating that below slec]) misguided men 
who t\>ll in battle for a cause over which we triuin])lied. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 87 

I shall delay you no longer, for you are about to listen to one of the most elo- 
quent men in this country. My purpose was simply to comply with the kind invita- 
tion given me to speak meet words of praise for the dead heroes sleeping around, 
and to aid in the solemnities of this occasion. I thank you for your attention, and 
will now unveil the statue. 




88 THE DE Die AT [OX OF THE MOM'MEXT IX THE 



ORATION OV GO\"KKNOR O. P. MORTON. 



"When the Moniimeut we ;vrc about to dedicate shall have cnimbled into dust ; 
when the last vestige of this Cemetery shall have been obliterated by the baud of 
time : when there shall be nothing left of all that we see now but the hills, the 
vallevs. the streams and the distant mountains, the great battle which here took 
place, with its far-reaching consequences, wiQ still live in history. Nations have 
their birth, vouth, maturity", old age and death : and ours, though we call it eternal, 
and our institutions immoital. vrHl be no exception. But though nations must pass 
awav. and all phvsical eWdence of their existence be lost, vet mav thev live through 
all time in the brightness of their examples, in the glorj" of their deeds, and in the 
beneficence of their institutions. These are the inheritances they leave to the far- 
coming centimes. 

"When the pyramids of Egpyt shall have sunk to the level of the Nile ; when 
the last remnant of Grecian architecture, the last inscribed block of marble shall 
have perished, men will still read of Moses and the Pass of Thermopylae. Monu- 
ments, after all, are but for the present, and may only instruct a few generations. 
But a glorious deed is a joy forever. 

Six vears ago, day after to-morrow, the Union army was stretched along these 
heights from Cxilp's HiU to Round Top — a himian breakwater, against which the 
great tidal wave of rebelUon was to dash in vain, and be thrown back in bloody spray 
and broken billows. The Rebel chieftain, flushed by his success at Fredericksburg 
and ChancellorsviUe, foraretting that his triumphs had arisen from the fact that he 
had fought upon his o\ra soil, behind natural f;vstness*s, ha>Tng the advantage of 
choice of position and knowledge of the country, had insolently crossed the Potomac 
and invaded the loyal State of Pennsylvania. But from this invasion he was hurled 
back in bloody defeat, and in disordered flight crossed the Potomac, never again to 
set foot upon the soil of a lov'al State. On yonder high g^round across the plain was 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 89 

drawn out in battle array the llebel host. It was an open field ; the terms were 
nearly equal ; and steady Northern valor, animated by the love of country, was to 
meet the boasted chivalry of the South fighting for slavery, sweep it from the field, 
strip it of its meretricious plumes, and give the Confederacy a fatal wound. 

It is the solid qualities of men and nations that win in the long run. The 
chivalry of false pride, the arrogance and vanity of a favored class, whose elevation 
is onlv seen by the depression of others, may, by spasmodic efforts for a time dazzle 
the eves of the world, but cannot long maintain a successful contest with truth, 
justice, and the strength of free institutions. This was illustrated in the war of the 
Eebellion. and in the battle of Gettysburg. This battle Avas not won by superior 
strategy or military genius, although managed with great courage and skill by 
General Meade and his subordinate commanders, who left nothing undone that the 
occasion seemed to require, and who made the best use of the forces and opportu- 
nhies at their command. 

It Avas a three davs" battle, with varying fortunes the first and second days, in 
which the steadiness of Northern valor, animated by the convictions of a just cause, 
and the love and pride of a great and free country, finally wore out. bore down, and 
swept from the field the llebel masses, composed of men of equal physical courage, 
but whose moral powers were impaired by the absence of that strong conviction of 
the right which is a vast element of success. 

In vender Cemetery, among the white tombstones, •■ where heaves the turf in 
many a mouldering heap " over the buried generations of the hamlet, was planted the 
artillery whose fearful peals would have aroused the slumbering dead were it not 
ordained that they should awake only at the sound of the last trump. Just behind 
the crest of the hill, in the old cemetery, stood the tent of our glorious commander, 
the imperturbable Meade, calmly dictating his orders, while the storm of shot and 
shell flew over and around him. From yonder steeple, southw^est of the village, the 
Eebel chieftain surveyed the field, directed his host, and from time to time saw his 
advancino' columns reel and wither, and finally retreat in hopeless flight and con- 
fusion. The flower of the Eebel army had been chosen for the assault, and were 
massed to bring overwhelming numbers to bear on the point of attack. The 
Eebel chieftain brought together more than one hundi-ed and fifty pieces of artillery, 
with which, for three hours, he poured a terrific fire upon that part of the I nion 

lines he intended to assault. 
12 



90 THK DKnicATioy or the moxlmext ix the 

It was a sjrund and solonui sight, when line after lino, with steady step and in 
perfect onUn\ emerged from the smoke and swept across the tield towards the Union 
arn\y. It was a moment of vast peril and import, of which hoth parties were power- 
fully conscious. If the Kehel assault was successful ami we lost. the battle. Washing- 
ton and Philadelphia were within their gi-asp. The North in\aded. defeated, and 
den\oralized would do — we know not what. Foreign nations would be encouraged to 
intervene, and the South, elated, would put forth more desperate efforts than before. 
If the assault failed ;uid we gained the battle, the remnant of the Rebel hosts must 
seek safety in flight, and a blow would be inflicted upon the Confederacy from which 
it could scarcely recover. These thoughts were present in the minds of all. and gave 
heroic courage to assault and to resist. But now the fire of our artillery is openetl 
upon the ad\ ancing columns, and the shot and shell tore through their ranks, nuiking 
great gaps, which were quickly filled up by those who came behind, lint onward 
thev came with desperate courage, until soon the fierce fii-e of musketry on both sides 
mingled with the horrid roar of artillery. Then, with terrific yells, they rushed upon 
our lines ; but the impetus of their assault was suddenly checked. They were met 
with a courage as desperate as their OT\"n. :md a fierce hand-to-hand conflict took 
place. The result was not long doubtful. Their thinned and broken columns were 
flung back across the plain in headlong flight. lea\-iug thousands of prisoners in our 
hands, the groniid coveixnl with dead iuid dying, and wet and muddy with blood. 
A\"e had g-ained the day. thovigh at feivrful cost. The A-ictory was great and mighty 
in its consequences. The prestige of the Rebel lumy was broken, never to be 
recvivered. and the wound inflicted upon the Confederacy was never s^almched until 
it had bled to death. 

The next day was the Fourth of July, and the most memorable since that of 
11 16. C"hi juiother field it witnessed the surrender of another large Rebel army to 
the great chiet'tain of the war. now our illnstrious President. The capture of ^'icks- 
burg openetl the navig-ation of the Mississippi river, luid severed from the Confederacy 
:\ll that part of its territory lying west of that river. The loss to the Confederacy 
w;»s irreparable. It was cut off fix>m its chief source of supplies. The limits of the 
war were greatly circumscribed. The mass of the Rel>el population was demonUized 
and beg;in to despair. From that day it became manifest that the Rebellion could 
not succeed, unless the Southern people exliibited that endurance, patience under 
ad\ersitv. and high devotion that will sacrifice evenithing for the cause, which, as it 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 91 

turned out. they did not possess. By our victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg the 
Rebellion lost its prestige in Europe, and all hopes of foreign intervention. 

At the foot of the Monument sleep the heroes of tlie battle. Here lies the 
father, the husband, the brother and the only son. In far off homes, among the hills 
of New England, on the shores of the lakes, and in the valleys and plains of the 
West, the widow, the orphan, and the aged parents are weeping for these beloved 
dead. Many of the tombs are marked " unknown," but they will ;ill Ije recognized 
on the morning of the resurrection. The unknown dead left behind them kindred, 
friends, and breaking hearts. None die so huml)le but leave some one to mourn. 
" Perished at Gettysburg, in defence of their country," nine hundred and seventy- 
nine men of whose names, homes, or hneage there is no trace left on earth. Doubt- 
less the recording angel has preserved the record, and when the books are opened on 
the last day their names wiU be found in letters of light on the immortal page of 
heroes who died that their country might live. 

In the fields before us are the graves of the Rebel dead, now sunk to the level 
of the plain, '■ unmarked, unhonored and unknown." They were our countrymen— 
of our blood, language, and history. They displayed a courage worthy (jf their 
country, and of a better cause, and we may drop a tear to their memory. The news 
of this fatal field carried agony to thousands of Southern homes, and the wail of despair 
was heard in the everglades and orange groves of the South. Would to God that 
these men had died for their country and not in fratricidal strife, for its destruction. 
Oh, who can describe the wickedness of rebellion, or paint the horrors of civil war ! 
The Rebellion was madness. It was the insanity of States, the delirium of 
millions, brought on by the pernicious influence of human slavery. The people of 
the South were drunk with the spoils of the lalior of four millions of slaves. They 
were educated in the beUef that chivalry and glory were the inheritance only of 
slaveholders ; that free institutions and free labor begat cowardice and servility ; that 
Northern men were sordid and mercenary, intent only upon gain, and would not 
fight for theii- Government or principles. And thus educated, and thus behoving, 
they raised their hands to strike the Government of their- fathers and to establish a 
new constitution, the chief coiiier-stoue of which was to be human slavery. 

The lust of power, the unholy greed of skvery, the mad ambition of disap- 
pointed statesmen impelled the people of the South to a fearful crime, which 
drenched the land with fraternal blood, that has been punished as few crimes have 



9-2 THE DEDICATION OF THE .VOX CM EXT IX THE 

ever been in this world, but out of which, we are assured, that God in His provi- 
dence will brmg forth the choicest blessings to our country and to the human race ; 
even as of the dead. Liberty universal, soon to be guaranteed and preserved by 
suffrage universal ; the keeping of a nations freedom to be entrusted to all the 
people, and not to a part only ; the national reproach washed out in rivers of 
blood, it is true ; but the sins of the world were atoned by the blood of the Saviour, 
and the expiation of blood seems to be the grand economy of God founded in wisdom, 
to mortals inscrutable. Resurrection comes only from the grave. Death is the great 
progenitor of life. From the tomb of the Rebellion a nation has been born again. 
The principles of liberty, so gloriously stated in the Declaration of Independence, 
had hitherto existed in theory. The (jovemraent had ever been a painfid contradic- 
tion to the Declaration. AVhile proclaiming to the world that liberty was the gift of 
God to every human being, four millions of the people were held in abject and 
brutalizing slavery, under the shadow of the national flag. In the presence of these 
slaves, professions of devotion to liberty were vain and hypocritical. The clanking 
of theu" chains ascended perpetually in contradiction to our professions, and the 
enemies of republicanism pointed contemptuously to our example. But all this is 
passed. Slavery lies bimed in the tomb of the Rebellion. The Rebellion, the off- 
spiing of slavery, hath murdered its unnatural parent, and the perfect reign of Ubert}- 
is at hand. 

"With the ratification of the fifteenth article, proposed by Congress as an amend- 
ment to the Constitution of tht' United States, which we have every reason to believe 
will soon be completed, impartial sufi'rage will be established throughout the laud. 
The equal rights of men will be recognized, and the millennium in liberty and govern- 
ment will be reaUzed. to which oiu- fathers looked forward with hopefulness and joy. 

The principles of liberty once jjlanted in the earth, and ripened into theii- rich 
fruits, will be borne through all the ages, blessing mankind to the latest generation, 
even as the seeds first sown by the hand of God in paradise, were blown by the 
winds from continent to continent, imtil the world was clothed with verdure, fruits 
and flowers. 

The prospect for Uberty throughout the world was never so bright as it is to-day. 
In all civilized lands the grand luniies of freedom are on their march. And thev are 
allied armies, ^'ictory to one will give prestige and confidence to the others. "With 
some, progress will be slow ; they wiU encounter disaster and defeat, but will again 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 93 

rally, and go forward to final victory. In the great campaign of freedom we count, 
not by months, but by decades and generations, in which tliere will be many a Bull 
Run," many a Gettysburg, and a final Appomattox. The»lines of march will be 
marked by many a cemetery like this, by the wrecks of fallen institutions and 
dynasties, and by the ruins of hereditary privilege and caste. 

Let us briefly review the advance of liberty since 1176. 

The principles of the Declaration of Independence took early and deep root in 
France. The people of the empire had long suffered from the grossest misrule and 
oppression, and their minds were well prepared to r(.m])rehend and accept the new 
o'ospel of Liberty. The French revolution first threw off the kingly go\ernment, 
then estabhshed complete democracy, but not knowing how to use liberty without 
abusing it, the people being governed by their passions, and seeking to avenge upon 
parties and classes the wrongs they had suffered for generations, passed into anarchy, 
from which the transition back to monarchy and despotism was easy and rapid. But 
the return of monarchy was not characterized by the former oppression and misrule. 
The people had learned their rights and monarchs had learned their power. Many 
of the old abuses which had been swept away by the revolution were gone forever, 
and the new monarchy governed with comparative justice, liberality, and humanity. 

The spirit of liberty had entered into the hearts of the people, and from time to 
time asserted itself in various ways, and in 1848 France returned again to a republic. 
This lasted but a short time, but the new monarch who overthrew it and established 
himself upon its ruins was constrained to acknowledge the sovereignty of the people, 
and to profess to accept his crown by the vote of the majority. While we cannot say 
much for the freedom of that election, nor believe that the result was the will of the 
people, yet it was of vast significance that the usurping government was compelled 
to claim its title from a pretended popular election. In many respects the govern- 
ment of Napoleon III. has been excellent. He has recognized the freedom of 
religious opinion. He has protected the people in their persons and property. He 
has encouraged trade and industry, stimulated manufactures, and extended their 
commerce. He has given them a constitution which creates a legislative body, and 
guarantees many rights and privileges. But the people are not satisfied. They are 
denied liberty of speech and of the press on political questions. They are not 
allowed to assemble for the discussion of measures in which they are vitally in- 
terested. Their legislative body is so constructed and managed as to be a mere 



!»4 Till-: DEDICATIOX OF THE MnXUMEXT IX THE 

registry of' tlu- will of the Emperor. The recent elections show the s[)irit of dis- 
content and the I'xi-iti-nce of a powerful party who understand their rights and are 
determined to assert them, peacefnll} . if they can. and. as we have reason to believe, 
forcibly, if they nnist. The attentive observer and student of French history, is led 
to the conclusion that nothing can preserve the throne and dynasty of Xapoleou III., 
but the concession of the popnlar rights and the establishment of freedom of sjieech 
and of the press, of the elections, and of the legislative body. The rei)ublican 
sentiment of France, though it has been nnfortnnate, and frt)ni tiuie to time sup- 
pressed and apparently extinguished, is still vital, is growing in intelligence and 
power, and cannot be restrained, nnless monarchy becomes so liberal and free as to 
confer the substantial benefit of a repnblic. AVe cannot doubt that Napoleon 
appreciates the sitnation. and is preparing to make snch concessions as will keep the 
])opnlar discontent this side of revolntion. 

The niai-ch of liberty in Germany is slow bnt steady. The great German family 
are struijsjlini!; for nnitv and freedom. The institntions of Germanv are becomins more 
liberal from year to year, and the condition of the people better and hap[)ier. The 
evil of large standing armies, annually withdrawing the yonng men from liome and 
prodnctive pursnits, is still endured, because Germany is surrounded by warlike and 
powerful enemies, clad in complete armor. But everywhere the tendency of the 
German mind is to the fullest liberty of thought, and to the recognition of the 
" equal rights "' of men. 

Austria, so long oppressed, reels and responds to the impulse of libertv. An 
intelligent Emperor, who has not shut his eyes to what is going on in the world 
around him, perceives that he cannot stem the powerful current everywhere setting 
in toward free iustitutions, and that the security of his throne depends upon his 
conceding to the people rights and privileges which have been denied them since 
Austria was au empire, and giving back to Hungary the enjoyment of her ancient 
constitution. The abolition of the Concordat, the establishment of religious freedom, 
the eipial taxation of all classes, are among the hopeful beginnings of Austrian 
reform. 

Italy, the ancient seat of the junver and glory of the Roman Empu"e, land of 
history, philosophy. ])oetry. nnisic. painting, sculpture, and romance, land of '• starry 
climes and sunny skies," whose delicious climate, lofty mountains, and beautiful 
valleys ;uid plains have ever excited the admiration of the tra\eller and poet, has 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 95 

made great progress in iinity and freedom. Suffrage nearly universal, the habeas 
corpus, freedom of religion and free schools arc some of the principal features of 

Italian liberty. 

The spirit of liberty is abroad in Russia— mighty empire of the North, whose 
government has represented the perfect idea of absolute despotism— an autocrat 
power, unrestrained by constitution or law. An enlightened Czar, animated l)y love 
for his people, and perceiving the individual happiness and material prosperity pro- 
duced by free institutions, abolished slavery throughout his dommions, made the serfs 
freemen, and gave to them local free institutions, based upon the right of suffrage. 
It is true the imperial power still extends over all— a dark, impenetrable canopy- 
but beneath its shadow there is individual liberty and local self-government. Thus 
far the prosperous result has estabUshed the wisdom of the Czar, and maj we not 
believe that he has laid the foundation of a free government, to be developed into a 
grand republic in the far future ?— and nearer, into a constitutional monarchy, with 
representative institutions ? liberty is like living seed ; wherever planted it vivifies, 
expands, develops. Thus planted in Russia among the lowest people, and for local 
purposes, it will grow, develop, and finally conquer. Russia is among the progressive 
nations, and is our friend, and it was the American example which touched the heart 
and intellect of the Emperor. 

The spirit of liberty in its onward march has mvaded Spain, and is stming the 
great national heart. We have lately seen the great Spanish people firmly, and 
almost peacefully and unanimously, depose a Hcentious queen and declare against her 
dynasty. We have seen this people meet in primary assemblies, and, by suffrage 
universal, elect a National Cortes which has for many months, in calm debate, con- 
sidered and framed a new constitution, which, although not republican in its form, 
contains so much liberty, so much that is good and progressive in government, as to 
give the world high hope in the future of Spain. We have heard this national 
assembly declare that all sovereignty and power reside in the people, thus denying 
the divine rights of kings, and assertmg the fundamental idea of free institutions. 
We have heard it pronounce the abolition of slavery. We have heard it pronounce 
the right of all men to worship God according to the dictates of their own con- 
sciences. Verily, these are great things and new times in old Spain. These are the 
germs of free institutions, and will, in the progress of years, grow into a republican 
government. 



9G TUE DEDICATIOX OF THE MOXiMEXT IX THE 

Cuba, the queen of the Antilles, richest gem in the Spanish crown, the most fei"- 
tile of ishuids, rich Wyond description in the fruits and productions of tropical climes, 
and from which the Spanish treasury has so long l>een supplied, is making a lK»ld. 
vigorous, and. as we trust, a successfid eifort to throw off the Spanish yoke and 
establish her independence. The native Cubans, inspired by the spiiit of liberty, 
have proclaimed liberty to the slaves, freedom of religious opinion, and that govern- 
ments exist only by the consent of the governed. Cuba belongs to the American 
svstem, and the question of her fate is essentially American. AVe cannot be indif- 
ferent to the struggle, and trust and l>elieve that our Governmont stands ready to 
acknowledge her independence at the etuliest moment that will l>e justified by the laws 
and usages of nations. Though we cannot rightfully intei-vene between Spain and 
her colony which she has so long oppressed and impoverished, our sympathies are 
with the Cubans, and we cannot regret any aid they may receive which does not 
involve a breach of the interuationi\l duty of our Government. A^'hile the grand 
revolution in Spain is proceeiling so peacefully and successfiUly ; while the Spanish 
people are asserting their liberties and fortifnug them by constitutional bulwarks, it 
is to l>e deeplv regretted that thev aie denving to Cuba what thev claim for them- 
selves. 

The American Revolution was also an English revolution. The struggle for 
lilx'rty here reacted xipon Enghmd. has gone forw;ird there continu;Uly, and is stronger 
tixlav than ever. One reform has succeeded imother. The basis of suffntge has 
l>een widened from time to time, and has always been followed by an extension of 
the rights, privileges, and prosperity of the people. The institutions of Enghmd have 
become more liberal, just, and beneficent as the right of suffrage has been extended, 
and a larger number of men admitted to a voice in the government. Recentlv we 
have seen a new extension of the franchise, follow-ed almost immediately by a move- 
ment for the disestablishment of the Irish Chiuch. The Irish Church establishment 
though professedly in the interests of Protestantism, is not sustained or justified by 
the Protestant world, and the Protestant masses of England are demanding its repeal. 
The disestablishment bill has passed the Uouse of Commons, but the lords threaten 
to reject it. or destroy it by modifications. It may sacrifice itself, but it c;iunot 
therebv preserve the Irish establishment. The House of Lords is tolerated only 
upon the condition that it will ratify the action of the Commons, and will give its 
formal assent to all popiUar movements. It possesses no real political power, and 



&OLDJERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 97 

^vill not be permitted to obstruct the wishes of the people. Should it be rush enouf^h 
to reject the disestablishment bill, it will at once inaugurate a movement for its own 
reorganization, and the destruction of hereditary privileges. Such a movement can- 
not, perhaps, be long deferred anyhow. Another reform l)ill will soon be demanded, 
making suffrage universal, or nearly so, to be followed 1)} the disestablishment of the 
English Church, the abolition of the laws of primogeniture, and tlie final destruction 
of the kingly office. The mass of the English people are substantially, though iKjt 
professedly, republican in sentiment. They accept the great docti-ine of human 
rights upon which our Government is founded ; and, while they yet retain the throne 
and the House of Lords, any attempt on the part of either to exercise positive power, 
or resist the popular will, would be instantly met by threats of resistance, and, if not 
abandoned, by revolution. The throne and the Upper House remain much like the 
feudal castles that yet distinguish the English landscape, emblems of departed power, 
curious to the view, full of historic interest, but no longer dangerous to the peace of 
the surrounding country. English reforms, heretofore slow, are becoming more 
rapid, and the English people are marching with accelerated speed to a republican 
government. Universal suffrage and hereditary privilege cannot exist long together. 
They are essentially hostile elements. The progress of suffrage in England has been 
resisted at every step by the aristocratic classes ; but, after many years of struggle, it 
has arrived at that point where its further progress cannot be long delayed. Uni- 
versal suffrage lies at the very summit of the hill of Difficulty, the assent of which 
is rugged, slow and toilsome, but when achieved, the people will be masters of the 
situation. America is avenging herself upon England by gradually but surely over- 
turning her aristocratic and hierarchic institutions by the force of her teachings and 
example. The principles of civil and religious liberty, crude and imperfect when 
first brought from England to America, having been refined, illustrated, and extended, 
we return them to the mother country for her adoption, laden with rich and glo- 
rious results. The spirit of American liberty is abroad m England, lier Brights, 
Gladstones, Forsters, and her whole host of liberal statesmen are proclaiming the 
doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, and verifying the saying of a celebrated 
Englishman, that the American Revolution guaranteed the free institutions of Eng- 
land. We may not live to see England a republic, but I believe our children ^\ill. 
The event can be predicted Avith as much certainty as any other in human affairs, and 
it is hastening on, perhaps fast enough when all things are considered. 
13 



98 THE DEDICATION OF THE MOSUMEXT IX THE 

The difficulties in the way of putting down the Rebel lion were great. The 
rebellious States contained a population of not less than ten millions, and although 
nearly four millions were slaves, yet most of them, until the very conclusion of the 
war. constituted the laboring and producing classes, and furnished the supplies for 
the llcbel armies in the tield, and the non-combatants at home. The territory of the 
rebellious States comprised an area of not less than eight bundled thousand square 
miles, diversitied by a ast ranges of mountains, deep rivers, tangled wilderness, and 
far-stretching swamps, and everywhere presenting natmal defences, behind which a 
small force could hold a large one at bay. The lines of communication were neces- 
sarily of great length, and maintained with difficulty. A large portion of our forces 
were constantly employed in this way. and in garrisoning posts, so that it was seldom 
we were able to meet the enemy with superior force upon the field. These immense 
difficvdties went far to counterbalance our superiority in population and resources, 
and were so great as to lead military observers throughout Europe to prophesy, 
almost with one accord, that we could not conquer the South. It was said there was 
no instance in history where so large a population, scattered over even one-thiid of 
a teiTitorv so great as that embraced by the Rebellion, had been subdued. It was 
said we could not conquer space ; that conquest would be a geographical impossi- 
bility ; that three millions of men could not garrison the South, and that when we 
had captmed theii- to^\-ns and overrun the inhabited parts of their country, they would 
still maintain the war in morass, mountain and forest, almost impenetrable to regular 
armies, until the North, exhausted in blood and treasiue, and broken in hope, would 
give up the contest. Such was the belief of leading military minds in Euroiie, and 
of the politicians of the South when the war began. These opinions seemed well- 
founded in reason and in history, and the suppression of the Rebellion, all things 
considered, may be justly regarded as the greatest of all military achievements. The 
fact that the Rebels fought upon their own soU, in a country with which they were 
familiar, protected from the approach of loyal armies by the natural advantages 
before described, was a full compensation for the difference between tlie population 
and resomxes of the two sections, and the final triumph of our arms and the sup- 
pression of the Rebellion must be sought for in other causes. AViiat these causes 
were may be briefly stated : 

First. In the strength, courage, and endurance imparted to armies by the con- 
viction that they are fighting in a just and patriotic cause. The humblest privates in 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. \V.) 

our army believed that they were fighting to preserve the best govcmment in the 
world ; to preserve liberty and extinguish slavery ; in behalf of civilization and 
Christianity ; against barbarism and inhumanity. These convictions gave inspiration, 
courage and hope to the army, and animated the great mass of the people of the 
North, who sustained the Government throughout the contest, constituting an im- 
mense moral power, in opposition to which the South had but little to offer. The 
people of the South had bitter prejudices, which had been carefully fostered bv the 
designing politicians. ^lau} of them believed in the abstract doctiine, under the 
Constitution, of State sovereignty and the right of secession. Some of them believed 
in the rightfulness of slavery, but more in its profitableness, its convenience, and its 
contributions to luxury and pride. But all of these constituted no moral power to 
inspire the patriot, nerve the soldier, give consolation in the dying hour, or determine 
people never to surrender, and to struggle on to the last. When, therefore, the 
principal armies of the Kebellion were overcome and had surrendered, the war was 
at an end. Hostility was not maintained in the forest and mountain as had been 
predicted. The convictions, hopes and purposes of the masses had been extinguished 
before their armies were, and although they were full of bitterness and humiliation, 
yet there was nothing left for which they might sacrifice their homes and the future 
quiet and prosperity of theii* lives. Their cause failed in advance of theii' armies 
and resources. The Eebel historian of the " Lost Cause," in descanting upon the 
subject, speaks as follows : — 

" The whole fabric of Confederate defence tumbled down at a stroke of arms that did not amount 
to a battle. There was no last great convulsion, such as usuallj- marks the final struggle of a people's 
devotion, or the expiring hours of their desperation. The word surrender travelled from Virginia to 
Texas. A four years' contest terminated with the smallest incident of bloodshed ; it lapsed, it passed 
by a rapid and eas}- transition into a profound and abject submission. There must be some explana- 
tion of this flat conclusion of the war. It i.s easily found. Such a condition could only take place in 
the thorough demoralization of the armies and people of the Confederacy ; there must have been a 
general decay of public spirit — a general rottenne.ss of piililic affairs — when a great war was thus 
terminated, and a contest was abandoned so short of positive defeat, and so far from the historical 
necessity of subjugation." 

And again he says : 

" We fear that the lessons and examples of history are to the contrarj-, and we search in vain 
for one instance where a country of such extent as the Confederacy has been so thoronghl3- subdued 
by any amount of military force, unless where popular demoralization has supervened." 



100 THE HEDICATIOX OF THE MOyi'MEXT JX THE 

History records that many uatious. tar more exhausted than they, have struggled ou to 
tiual victory. Our Revohitionary fathers, at the end of four years, defeated, exhausted 
ivud overrun, did not despair, but. animated by the justice of their cause ;uid the 
belief that it would triumph because it was just, struggled on. and at the end of seven 
years were blessed with peace and the rich reward which shall be the inheritance of 
the emth. " Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just." and weak and defence- 
less are they who contend for injustice and slavery, though girt about by the mountain, 
the swift ri^ er and the deep wilderness. 

Secoiidli/. The armies of the North wei-e strong in that physical endurance which 
is conniuinicated by habitual labor, and by that self-reliance and contidence which 
free labor only c;ui insjiire. They were strong in the intelligence of the masses who 
tilled the ranks. These men imdei-stood well the nature of the sfruggle in which 
they were engaged. They knew the vast consequences to themselves, their pos- 
terity, and to the world, depending upon the result. Theii- education enabled them 
not only to compiehend the " cause," but military operations, the condition of the 
Government and the country, and the decline of the spirit and strength of the enemy, 
lu short, our jvrmies were a vast intelligence, subject to military control, jiossessing 
cleiu- ideas of duty, condition, consequences, and spiiit and resolution commensurate 
to these. 

"^^'e have met here to-day to dedicate this Monument to the memory of the 
patriotic and gallant men who fell xipon this field, and to testify our love to the great 
cause in which they perished. Their achievements will be recorded upon the pages 
of history, much more enduring than stone, but we desire to present this visible 
evidence of our remembrance and gratitude. AVe ai-e surroiuided to-day by many of 
the surviving heroes of the battle : by many of the relatives and friends of those 
beloved dead, and by many thousands of oiur people who rejoice in the preservation, 
peace and prosperity of our country. That we have an united country, that we have 
national Government, that we have peace in all our borders, that there is liberty and 
protection for all. that we have bright and glorious prospects of indiWdual happiness 
;uid national growth and power, wo owe to the brave men who fell upon this and 
other fields. The glorious ciiTumstance and bright auspices over and around us 
to-day wei-e purchased by their blood. "We are in the full enjoyment of the prize for 
which it was shed. 

lx>t us increase the gratitude of our heivrts bv consideiiug for a moment what 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 101 

would be our condition if the liebelliou had triuniplicd. "We would liavc no solemn 
but sweet occasions like this. We would have no common country, no common 
name, no national flag, no glorious prospects for the future. Had the bond of union 
been broken, the various parts would have crumbled to ])ieces. We should have a 
slaveholding confederacy in the South ; a republic on the Pacific ; anotlier in the 
Northwest, and another in the East. AVith the example of one successful secession, 
dismemberment of the balance would ha\e speedily followed ; and our country, once 
the hope of the world, the pride of our hearts, l)roken into liostile fragments, would 
have been blotted from the map, and became a byword among the nations. Let us 
thank Almighty God to-day that we have escaped this horrible fate, ^^'e feel as one 
who awakes from a terrible dream, and rejoices that he is alive. We feel as did the 
children of Israel, when, standing upon the shores of tlie lied Sea, they looked back 
upon the destruction from which they had been delivered. 

Mr. Lincoln, standing in this place a few months after the battle, and while yet 
the conflict was raging, dedicated himself to his country and to the cause of liberty 
and union. The demon of Rebellion afterward exacted his life, l)ut tlie inspiration 
of the words he spoke is resting upon us to-day. The great prophecy he uttered 
when he said, " the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom," and that 
" the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish 
from the earth," is being fulfilled. He sealed his devotion with his blood, and sacred 
be his memory. The eloquent Everett, who spoke here on the same occasion, and 
who has since passed from earth, said : " God bless the Union ; it is dearer to us 
from the l)lood of brave men which has been shed in its defence." As I stood by 
them and listened to their inspii'ed words, my faith was renewed in the triumph of 
liberty ; but imagination failed to stretch forward to this auspicious day. The march 
of events has been faster than our thoughts, and the fruits of victory have already 
exceeded our most sanguine expectations. 

While we pay this tribute of love and gratitude to the dead, let us not forget 
the surviving heroes of the battle. They, too, offered their lives, but the sacriflce 
was not required. The admiration, love and gratitude of the nation will attend them 
as they pass down the declivity of time to honored graves. In the evening of theii* 
lives they will tell the story of Gettysburg to wondering youth, who will listen as we 
did when our grandfathers told of Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and Yorktown. Manv of 
them are here to-day, to review the scene of their struggle and triumph. Hofl 



IDV? THE DEDICATIOX OF THE MOSLMEST IX THE 

powerful tho contrast betwoon now and then I The dark cloud which overspread the 
horizon ot" tho nation is ijone, and all is brightness. The sulphurous cloud of battle, 
too. is gone, and there is nothing to obscure our vision of the field. The dead have 
returned to dust. The fields once cumbered with bodies and slipperv with blood, are 
clothed with verdure and harvest, and to-day all is peace, beautv and repose. 

A\'e seek not to commemorate a triumph over our misguided countrvmen. It is 
tlie cause we celebrate. Our triumph is theirs, and their childrens children, until the 
latest generation. The great disturbing element has been removed. Vicious political 
heresies have been extirpated. Tho trial by wager of battle has been decided in 
favor of liberty and union, and all will submit. Tho people of the North and South 
have mot each other face to face on many a field, have tried each others courage, 
have found they are much alike in many things, have increased their mutual respect, 
and are now preparing to live together more fraternally than before. 

The Southern States are rapiiUy recovering from the prostration of the war. and 
with theii- deliverance from the incubus of slavery, with free labor, with free schools, 
with emigration from the North and from Europe, wiU soon attain a prosperity and 
power of which they scarcely di-eamed in former days. The advancing ]nosperity is 
solid, just and enduring. \\"e rejoice in it. The bonds of Union are made indisso- 
luble by the comnuinity of political principles, by the complete identitv of domestic 
and commercial interests, and by a uniform system of labor, of education, and of 
habits of thought and action. Henceforth DisrxiON is Impossible. 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT G'ETTYSBUIIO. 103 



DEDICATION ODE, 

roii Tin; nationai. ckmetkuv at ckttvshi ik; 

BY l!AVAI!I> TAYI.Ol!. 



Afteh the e3-es tliat looked, tlio lips tli;it spnUe 

Here, from tiie shadows of iinpeiidiug death, 

Those words of solemn breath. 

What voice may fitly break 

The silence, (loul)ly hallowed, left by him? 

We cau but bow the head, with eyes grow dim, 

And, as a nation's litany, repeat 

The phrase his martyrdom hath made complete, 

Xoble as then but now more sadly sweet ; 

" Let us, the Living, rather dedicate 

Ourselves to the unfinished work, which they 

Thus far advanced so nobly on its way, 

And save the periled State ! 

Let us, upon this field where they, the brave. 

Their last full measure of devotion gave, 

Iligiily resolve they have not died in vain ! — 

That, under God, the nation's later birth 

Of Freedom, and the People's gain. 

Of their own Sovereignty shall never wane 

And perish from the circle of the earth I " 

From such a perfect text shall Song aspire 

To light its faded fire. 

And into wandering music turn 

Its virtue, simple, sorrowful and stern ? 

His voice all elegies anticipated : 

For, whatsoe'er the strain. 

We hear that one refrain : 

"We consecrate ourselves to them, the consecrated !" 



104 THE DEDICATION OF THE MOXi'MEXT IX THE 



After the thunder-storm our heaven is blue : 

Far otr, along the borders of the sky. 

In silver folds the clouds of battle lie. 

With soft, consoling sunlight shining through ; 

And round the sweeping circles of your hills 

The crashing cannon thrills 

Have faded from the memory of the air ; 

And summer pours from unexhausted fountains 

Her bliss on yonder mountains : 

The camps are tenantless ; the breastworks bare : 

Earth keeps no stain where hero-blood was poured : 

The hornets, humming on their wings of lead, 

Have ceased to sting, their angry swarms are dead. 

And, harmless in its scabbard, rusts the sword ! 



Oh, not till now — oh, now we dare, at last. 
To give our heroes fitting consecration ! 
Xot till the soreness of the strife is past. 
And Peace hath comforted the weary Nation '. 
So long her sad. indignant spirit held 
One keen regret, one throb of pain unquelled. 
So long the land about her feet was waste, 
The ashes of the burning lay upon her, 
We stood beside their graves with brows abased. 
Waiting the purer mood to do them honor I 
They, through the flames of this dread holocaust, 
The patriot's wrath, the soldier's anlor, lost : 
They sit above us and above our p.ission, 
Disparaged even by our human tears, — 
Beholding truth our race, perchance, may fashion 
In the slow judgment of the creeping years. 
We saw the still reproof upon their faces ; 
We heard them whisper from the shining spaces : 
" To-day ye grieve : come not to us with sorrow ! 
Wait for the glad, the reconciled To-morrow : 
Your iirief but clouds the ether where we dwell ; 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 105 

Your anger keeps j-onr souls and ours apart : 
But come with peace and pardon, all is well ! 
And come with love, we touch you, heart to heart ! 



Immortal Brothers, we have heard ! 

(Jur lips declare the reconciling word : 

For Battle taught, that set us face to face, 

The stubborn temper of the race. 

And both, from fields no longer alien, come. 

To grander action equally invited, — 

Marshalled by Learning's trump, by Labor's ilnini. 

In strife that purides and makes united ! 

"We force to build, the powers that would destroy : 

The muscles, hardened by the sabre's grasp 

Now give our hands a firmer clasp : 

We bring not grief to yon, but solemn joy ! 

And, feeling you so near. 

Look forward with your eyes, divinely clear, 

To some sublimely-perfect, sacred year. 

When sons of fathers whom ye overcame 

Forget in mutual pride the partial blame. 

And join with us to set the final crown 

Upon your dear renown, — 

The People's Union in heart and name I 



V. 

And yet, ye Dead ! — and yet 

Our clouded natures cling to one regret : 

We arc not all resigned 

To yield, with even minil. 

Our scarcely risen stars, that here untimely set. 

We needs must think of history that waits 

For lines that live but in their proud beginning — 

Arrested promises and cheated fates — 

Youth's boundless venture and its single winning. 

We see the ghosts of deeds they might have done. 

The phantom homes that beaconed tlieir endeavor ; 



14 



106 THE DEDWATIOX OF THE MOXL'MEXT IX THE 

The seetls of countless lives in tiiem begun. 

That might have multiplied for us forever ! 

We grudge the better strain of men 

That proved itself, and was extinguished then — 

The field, with strength and hope so thickly sown, 

VTherefrom no other harvest shall be mown ; 

For all the land, within its clasping seas, 

Is poorer now in bravery and beauty, 

Such wealth of manly loves and energies 

AVas oriven to teach us all the free man's sacred duty. 



Again 'tis they, the Dead, 

By whom our hearts are comforted. 

Deep as the land-blown murmurs of the waves. 

The answer cometh from a thousand graves ; 

" Not so ! we are not orphaned of our fate ! 

Though life was warmest and though love were sweetest, 

We still have portion in their best estate ; 

Our fortune is the fairest and completest ! 

Our homes are everywhere ; our loves are set 

In hearts of man and woman, sweet and vernal : 

Courage and Truth, the children we beget. 

Unmixed of baser earth, shall be eternal. 

A finer spirit in the blood shall give 

The token of the lines wherein we live, — 

I'nselfish force, unconscious nobleness 

That in the shocks of fortune stand unshaken, — 

The hopes that in their very being bless. 

The aspirations that to deeds awaken ! 

Oh, if superior virtue ye allow 

To us, be sure it still is vital in you, — 

That trust like ours shall ever lifl the brow, 

And strength like ours shall ever steel the sinew ! 

We are blossoms which the storm has cast 

From the Spring promise of our Freedom's tree, 

Pruning its overgrowths, that so, at last, 

Its later fruit more bountiful shall be ! — 

Content, if, when the balm of Time assuages 



SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG. 107 

The branch's hurt, some fragrance of our lives 

In all the land survives, 

And makes their memory sweet through still expanding ages ! " 



Thus grandl}', they we mourn, themselves console us ; 

And, as their spirits conquer and control us, 

We hear from some high realm that lies bej'ond, 

The hero-voices of the Past respond. 

From every State that reached a broader right 

Through ^ery gates of battle ; from the shock 

Of old invasions on the People's rock ; 

From tribes that stood, in Kings' and Priests' despite ; 

From graves forgotten in the Syrian sand. 

Or nameless barrows of the Northern strand, 

Or gorges of the Alps and Pyrenees, 

Or the dark bowels of devouring seas,— 

Wherever Man for Man's sake died — wherever 

Death stayed the march of upward-climbing feet. 

Leaving their Present incomplete, 

But through far Futures crowning their endeavor. 

Their ghostly voices to our ears arc sent. 

As when the high note of the trumpet wrings 

^oliaa answers from the strings 

Of many a mute, unflngered instrument. 

Plataean cj'mbals thrill for us to-day ; 

The horns of Sempach in our echoes plaj', 

Aud nearer 3'et, and sharper, and more stern, 

The slogan rings that startled Bannockburn ; 

Till from the field, made green with kindred deed. 

The shields are slashed in exultation 

Above the dauntless Nation, 

That for a Continent has fought its Runnymede ! 



Yes, for a Continent ! The heart that beats 

With such rich blood of sacrifice 

Shall, from the Tropics, drowsed with languid heats, 



108 THE DEDICATIOX OF THE MOXUMEXT IX THE 

To the blue ramparts of the Northern ice, 

Make felt its pulses, all this young world over! — 

Shall thrill and shake and sway 

Each laud that bourgeons in the Western day, 

Whatever flag may float, whatever shield may cover. 

AVith fuller manhood every wind is rife. 

In every soil are sown the seeds of valor, 

Since out of death came forth such boundless life, 

Such ruddy beauty out of anguished pallor ! 

And that war wasted arm 

Put forth to lift a sister-land from harm. 

Ere the last blood upon the blade was dried. 

Shall still be stretched, to shelter and to guide. 

Beyond her boiiiers, answering the need 

With counsel and with deed. 

Alons the Eastern and the Western wave. 

Still strong to smite, still beautiful to save ! 



Thus, in her seat secure, 

Where now no distant menaces can reach her. 

At last in undivideil freedom pure. 

She sits, the unwilling world's unconscious teacher ; 

And, day by day, beneath sereuer skies, 

The unshaken pillars of her palace rise — 

The Doric shat^s, that lightly upward press. 

And hide in grace their giant massiveness. 

What though the sword has hewn each corner-stoue, 

And precious blooil cements the deep foundation ? 

Never by other force have empires grown ; 

From other basis never rose a nation I 

For strength is born of struggle, faith of doubt. 

Of discord law. and freedom of oppression. 

We hail from Pisgah, with exulting shout. 

The Promised Land below us, bright with sun. 

And deem its pastures won. 

Ere toil and blootl have e:\rned us their possession ! 

Each aspiration of our human earth 

Becomes an act through keenest pangs of birth : 



SOLDIERU' NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYtiBUEG. 109 

Each force, lo bless, must cease to be a dream, 

And conquer life through agon^- supreme ; 

Each inborn right must outwardly be tested 

By stern material weapons, ere it stand 

In the enduring fabric of the land, 

Secured for those who yielded it, anil those who wresteil ! 



This tiio^- have done for us wiio slmulicr here. 

Awake, alive, though now so dumbly sleei)ing ; 

Spreading the board, but tasting not its cheer, 

Sowing, but never reaping ; — 

Building, but never sitting in the shade 

Of the strong mansion they have made ; — 

Speaking their words of life with mighty tongue. 

But hearing not the echo, million-voiced 

Of brothers who rejoiced, 

From all our river-vales and mountains Hung ! 

So take them. Heroes of the songful Past ! 

Open your ranks, let every shining troop 

Its phantom banners droop. 

To hail Earth's noblest martyrs, and her last ! 

Take tiiem, O Fatherland ! 

Who, dying, conquered in thy name ; 

And, with a grateful hand. 

Inscribe their deed who took away thy blame, — 

Give, for their grandest all, thine insuflicient fame ! 

Take them, O God ! our Brave, 

The glad fulfillers of Thy dread decree ; 

Who grasped tne sword for Peace, and smote to save, 

And, dying here for Freedom, died for Thee ! 



The Benediction was pronouuced by the Rev. S. S. Schmucker, D. D. 



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